I shall never forget you, Broadway
Your golden and calling lights.

I'll remember you long,
Tall-walled river of rush and play.

Hearts that know you hate you
And lips that have given you laughter
Have gone to their ashes of life and its roses,
Cursing the dreams that were lost
In the dust of your harsh and trampled stones

You came from the Aztecs
With a copper on your fore-arms
Tawnier than a sunset
Saying good-by to an even river.

And I said, you remember,
Those fore-arms of yours
Were finer than bronzes
And you were glad.

It was tears
And a path west
and a home-going
when I asked
Why there were scars of worn gold
Where a man's ring was fixed once
On your third finger.
And I call you
To come back
before the days are longer

I waited today for a freight train to pass.
Cattle cars with steers butting their horns against the bars, went by.
And a half a dozen hoboes stood on bumpers between cars.
Well, the cattle are respectable, I thought.
Every steer has its transportation paid for by the farmer sending it to market,
While the hoboes are law-breakers in riding a railroad train without a ticket.
It reminded me of ten days I spent in the Allegheny County jail in Pittsburgh.
I got ten days even though I was a veteran of the Spanish-American war.
Cooped in the same cell with me was an old man, a bricklayer and a booze-ighter.
But it just happened he, too, was a veteran soldier, and he had fought to preserve the Union and free the niggers.
We were three in all, the other being a Lithuanian who got drunk on pay day at the steel works and got to fighting a policeman;
All the clothes he had was a shirt, pants and shoes-- somebody got his hat and coat and what money he had left over when he got drunk.

Come again to the place
Where your presence was as a leaf that skims
Down a drouthy way whose ascent bedims
The bloom on the farer's face.
Come again, with the feet
That were light on the green as a thistledown ball,
And those mute ministrations to one and to all
Beyond a man's saying sweet.
Until then the faint scent
Of the bordering flowers swam unheeded away,
And I marked not the charm in the changes of day
As the cloud-colours came and went.
Through the dark corridors
Your walk was so soundless I did not know
Your form from a phantom's of long ago
Said to pass on the ancient floors,
Till you drew from the shad
And I saw the large luminous living eyes
Regard me in fixed inquiring-wise
As those of a soul that weighed,
Scarce consciously,
The eternal question of what Life was,
And why we were there, and by whose strange laws
That which mattered most could not be.

it started off as a simple place
You know, just a playground across the street
Where we’d jump and skate and race
Greeting the neighbors that we’d meet

Feeling the grass between our toes
And the wind blowing through our hair
Press a flower to your nose
Living life without a care

And on the swings we’d go so high
Swearing one day we’d flip over that rail
Feeling as if we could truly fly
Through the air we’d glide and sail

Oh, how many times did we skin a knee?
Or burn ourselves on that hot slide?
And the games we’d play, you and me
Like the one where you’d seek and I’d go hide

Around and around on the tire swing
Intoxicated by the swirls
Giggling and joking about everything
Running from the boys as they chased the girls

Splashing through the waterfall
From the sprinkler on a summer’s day
And we’d always make the biggest snowballs
Whenever winter came our way

On those lovely days in spring
Picking flowers with a friend
And what fun autumn would bring
Piling up the leaves, then diving in

On a bench under a tree
While joggers dash around the track
Submerged in tranquility
No threats, no worries, no looking back

Guys playing basketball over here
Girls playing hopscotch over there
The ice cream truck is always near
Cheer and laughter fill the air

Take me back to that special place
Where happiness is the only rule
Where the sun shines upon your face
Where the world is never cruel

We’ll step barefoot in the sand
And feel the wonder all around
Together we’ll proceed, hand in hand
Let’s go back to our playground

If I had to give you something, that would remind you of me,

I’d give you a house full of memories,

Because memories are things that go deeper into time,

We can look back at them and revive all that, lasting for years to go,

We’ll build it together and cherish it forever,

All that we shared, we’d capture under lock and key,

And make a life in that house, which is ideal for you and me

Wedding Poems