Hope poems
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The Broken Balance
© Robinson Jeffers
I heard yesterday
So shrill and mournful a trumpet-blast,
It was hard to be wise.... You must eat change and endure; not be much troubled
For the people; they will have their happiness.
When the republic grows too heavy to endure, then Caesar will carry It;
When life grows hateful, there's power ...
Contemplation Of The Sword
© Robinson Jeffers
Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
formerly used to kill men, but here
In the sense of a symbol. The sword: that is: the storms
Ave Caesar
© Robinson Jeffers
No bitterness: our ancestors did it.
They were only ignorant and hopeful, they wanted freedom but wealth too.
Their children will learn to hope for a Caesar.
Or rather--for we are not aquiline Romans but soft mixed colonists--
Suicide's Stone
© Robinson Jeffers
Peace is the heir of dead desire,
Whether abundance killed the cormorant
In a happy hour, or sleep or death
Drowned him deep in dreamy waters,
Peace is the ashes of that fire,
The heir of that king, the inn of that journey.
Paper Men To Air Hopes And Fears
© Robert Francis
The first speaker said
Fear fire. Fear furnaces
Incinerators, the city dump
The faint scratch of a match.
Psalm XXXVI: High in the Heav'ns
© Isaac Watts
High in the heav'ns, eternal God,
Thy goodness in full glory shines;
Thy truth shall break through ev'ry cloud
That veils and darkens thy designs.
Psalm XXXIV: Lord, I Will Bless Thee
© Isaac Watts
Lord, I will bless thee all my days,
Thy praise shall dwell upon my tongue;
My soul shall glory in thy grace,
While saints rejoice to hear the song.
Psalm XXXIII: Rejoice, Ye Righteous
© Isaac Watts
Rejoice, ye righteous, in the Lord,
This work belongs to you;
Sing of his name, his ways, his word,
How holy, just, and true.
Psalm LXXIV: Will God For Ever Cast Us Off?
© Isaac Watts
Will God for ever east us off?
His wrath for ever smoke
Against the people of' his love,
His little chosen flock?
Psalm LXXIII: Now I'm Convinced the Lord Is Kind
© Isaac Watts
Now I 'm convinced the Lord is kind
To men of heart sincere;
Yet once my foolish thoughts repined,
And bordered on despair.
Psalm I: The Man Is Ever Blessed
© Isaac Watts
The man is ever bless'd
Who shuns the sinners' ways,
Among their councils never stands,
Nor takes the scorner's place;
Psalm 78 part 1
© Isaac Watts
Let children hear the mighty deeds
Which God performed of old,
Which in our younger years we saw,
And which our fathers told.
