Things were accomplished, mistakes made; a
Normal day.
Things proceed, change is inevitable, and
Usually good, (I know, I’m a hopeless optimist.)
That is an oxymoron:
I guess I am just a moron.
Take what peace you can with you as
You go about your days,
Revel in it, savor it,
wallow in it as you
Sleep,
Then get up the next day with
Such joy and exuberance that it
Cannot be contained.
Jump
Out into the world and
Spread this sunshine
Wherever you go,
To whoever you
See, and Smile,
For the world
Is a good
Place.
by
Jerry E Smith
©12/19/15 (modified today, 12/19/2021)
by James Patrick Kinney
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story’s told.
Their dying fire in need of logs
The first man held his back
For of the faces round the fire
He noticed one was black.
The next man looking ‘cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?
The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy shiftless poor.
The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.
The last man of this forlorn group
Did naught except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.
Their logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.
The poem is in public domain, which has been confirmed by Timothy Kinney
What can we learn from all this?
We should not be miserly with the fires of our hearts.
