Thank you for the things you've done for me.
Happiness walks slowly, with a cane.
Although inside I'm dancing to the moon,
Nearby many obstacles remain.
Kind help like yours those thorny thickets prune.
You are my willing ear, the peaceful sea
On which I sail my thoughts, the quiet tune
Underneath my laughter and my pain.

A friend I possess, whose whispers just said,
"God's peace!" to my night-watching mind.
When daylight is gone and darkness brings dread,
He ever the way can find.

He utters no word to smite and to score;
He, too, has known sin and its grief.
He heals with his look the place that is sore,
And stays till I have relief.

He takes for his own the deed that is such
That sorrows of heart increase.
He cleanses the wound with so gentle a touch,
The pain must give way to peace.

He followed each hope the heights that would scale
Reproached not a hapless descent.
He stands here just now, so mild, but so pale; --
In time he shall know what it meant.

The youth in the woods spent the whole day long,
The whole day long;
For there he had heard such a wonderful song,
Wonderful song.

Willow-wood gave him a flute so fair,
A flute so fair,--
To try, if within were the melody rare,
Melody rare.

Melody whispered and said: "I am here!"
Said: "I am here!"
But while he was listening, it fled from his ear,
Fled from his ear.

Oft when he slept, it to him crept,
It to him crept;
And over his forehead in love it swept,
In love it swept.

When he would seize it, his sleep took flight,
His sleep took flight;
The melody hung in the pallid night,
In the pallid night.

"Lord, O my God, take me therein,
Take me therein!
The melody rare all my soul doth win,
My soul doth win."

Answered the Lord: "'T is your friend alone,
Your friend alone;
Though never an hour you it shall own,
You it shall own."

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of; wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hovering there
I've chased the shouting winds along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air;
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace,
Where never lark nor even eagle flew;
And while, with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

God has a lovely garden
In His mansion up above,
He tends the garden every day
With tenderness and love.

The flowers that are in it
Are the sweetest and the best,
To get into God's garden
They have to pass a test.

He goes around them every day
Treating them with care,
You're really very lucky
You have a flower in there.

And when you reach the garden
You'll look at it with pride,
Knowing God, He'll probably put you
At your loved one's side.

Shades of Clouds

So many different kinds of cloud
Travel the skies, humble or proud;
Some clouds glow clean and bright
Some are a fluffy shade of white
Some are flat, some are gray
Some stand in the mighty sun's way
Some are gentle, like a thin veil
Others vicious, thundering, hail;
Different clouds, different shades
Made of same water, different grades.
Each travels the skies for some time
Disperses, unloads, old, or in its prime.

We too like clouds, in different shades
Of the same essence, in different grades
Travel the earth for some time
And disappear to the celestial Chime.

Wedding Poems