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Nov. 15th, 2016 at 3:38 PM
Sundown
When the wounded in hospital came to die, said a British officer,their last request in many cases was for the prayer,
"Now I lay me down to sleep."
When my sun of life is low,
When the dewy shadows creep,
Say for me before I go,
“Now I lay me down to sleep.”
I am at the journey's end,
I have sown and I must reap;
There are no more ways to mend—
Now I lay me down to sleep.
Nothing more to doubt or dare,
Nothing more to give or keep;
Say for me the children's prayer,
“Now I lay me down to sleep.”
Who has learned along the way—
Primrose path or stony steep—
More of wisdom than to say,
“Now I lay me down to sleep.”
What have you more wise to tell
When the shadows round me creep?…
All is over, all is well!
Now I lay me down to sleep.
Comments
The Riddle of the Dinosaur
Behold the mighty dinosaur,
Famous in prehistoric lore,
Not only for his weight and length,
But for his intellectual strength.
You will observe by these remains
The creature had two sets of brains,
The one in his head, the usual place,
The other at his spinal base.
Thus he could reason a priori
As well as a posteriori.
No problem bothered him a bit,
He made both head and tail of it.
So wise he was
So wise and solemn
Each thought filled just a spinal column.
If one brain found the pressure strong,
It passed a few ideas along.
It something slipped the forward mind
’Twas rescued by the one behind.
And if in error he was caught
He had a saving afterthought.
As he thought twice before he spoke
He had no judgment to revoke.
For he could think without congestion
Upon both sides of every question.
O gaze upon this noble beast,
Defunct ten million years at least.
By Bert Leston Taylor
Thanks! It's very funny, this dinosaur poem by the same poet...and yet...;)
Canopus
When quacks with pills political would dope us,
When politics absorbs the livelong day,
I like to think about that star Canopus,
So far, so far away.
Greatest of visioned suns, they say who list 'em;
To weigh it science almost must despair.
Its shell would hold our whole dinged solar system,
Nor even know 'twas there.
When temporary chairmen utter speeches,
And frenzied henchmen howl their battle hymns,
My thoughts float out across the cosmic reaches
To where Canopus swims.
When men are calling names and making faces,
And all the world's ajangle and ajar,
I meditate on interstellar spaces
And smoke a mild seegar.
For after one has had about a week of
The argument of friends as well as foes,
A star that has no parallax to speak of
Conduces to repose.
By Bert Leston Taylor
You should post it to the greatpoets comm, if you haven't already ;)