Poems, Personal Stories, and Observations

Archive for April, 2026

Memories

[I don’t especially like this poem I wrote, but I ran it by
some “friendly critics,” and they liked it, so here it is.]

Memories keep coming back —
My sins and failures of the past,
But, thankfully, the Lord was there —
To keep accusing — the Devil won’t dare.

Memories of friends that died,
Others, that I left behind —
Physic’ly, or in my mind.
Sometimes, perhaps, I was not kind.

Others left me at different times —
I didn’t know with my small mind
The reasons that would cause these rifts —
Perhaps they were a painful gift.

So many awkward, embarrassing scenes —
I almost have them in my dreams.
Still, better just to have a laugh
Than dwell upon a jumbled past.

Well, what’s a life without some pain?
Without it, some say, there is no gain.
And with a painful lesson learned
The joy that’s birthed is fully earned.

Category:

Poems

Tagged with:

Could You Be a Farmer?

Could you be a farmer? 
And leave the city, all secure,
Venture where it all depends
On God — and not on you?

But your hard work,
You’d never shirk,
If you were not to starve.

With breaking backs
Or robot machines,
You’d till the soil
By any means

To strain out, or  
If the soil was rich —
Abundant food
That modern souls

Have not a clue —
The labor that
Our ancestors knew.

With sweating brows
And muscles that ached
From dawn to dusk,
For survival’s sake.

But surely there were
Good times, too.

The love of God,
The love of friends.
Quiet evenings,
As winter descends.

I’ve only read of farms in books,
The tales of homesteads,
Of babbling brooks —

Of Little Houses on the Prairie,
Of wild animals to be wary,
Of building cabins with bare hands,
Of bravely living off the land.

It’s a dream that might never be —
Still, younger folk can start, bravely.
Alas, old me, not strong enough —
Those people were made of sterner stuff.

I’ll keep on dreaming, and till my little plot.
Little dreams, too, can mean a lot.

Category:

Poems

Tagged with: