Part 25 (2/2)

TREES

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at G.o.d all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me, But only G.o.d can make a tree.

JOYCE KILMER

THE LOST GARDENS OF THE HEART

AS IN A ROSE-JAR

_As in a rose-jar filled with petals sweet Blown long ago in some old garden place, Mayhap, where you and I, a little s.p.a.ce Drank deep of love and knew that love was fleet-- Or leaves once gathered from a lost retreat By one who never will again retrace Her silent footsteps--one, whose gentle face Was fairer than the roses at her feet;_

_So, deep within the vase of memory I keep my dust of roses fresh and dear As in the days before I knew the smart Of time and death. Nor aught can take from me The haunting fragrance that still lingers here-- As in a rose-jar, so within the heart!_

THOMAS S. JONES, JR.

IN AN OLD GARDEN

Old phantoms haunt it of the long-ago; Old ghosts of old-time lovers and of dreams: Within the quiet sunlight there, meseems, I see them walking where those lilies blow.

The hardy phlox sways to some garments' flow; The salvia there with sudden scarlet streams, Caught from some ribbon of some throat that gleams, Petunia fair, in flounce and furbelow.

I seem to hear their whispers in each wind That wanders 'mid the flowers. There they stand!

Among the shadows of that apple tree!

They are not dead, whom still it keeps in mind, This garden, planted by some lovely hand That keeps it fragrant with its memory.

MADISON CAWEIN

THE GARDEN OF DREAMS

My heart is a garden of dreams Where you walk when day is done, Fair as the royal flowers, Calm as the lingering sun.

Never a drouth comes there, Nor any frost that mars, Only the wind of love Under the early stars,--

The living breath that moves Whispering to and fro, Like the voice of G.o.d in the dusk Of the garden long ago.

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