A BETTER WAY

How much, my Homeland, do we want peace?
What strong effort will we release
To win the minds of every race,
Project the kinds of face to face
Care and concern which wins most hearts,
And helps them learn to do their parts?

In building lives which learn to earn,
We help husbands, also wives, soon discern
Open doors at their doors,
Which say they need not be so poor.
They soon can learn, with their households
As opportunity soon unfolds.

This feeds the poor, clothes and shelters beyond our reach;
Shows the world “a sure-fire lure” by which at last we can impeach
Violent hatred, which leads to war, as others see us as we are.
Far more circumspect than building walls made by fear,
Which walls grow taller year by year,
As we spend billions in our fright, the very thing that makes men fight.

Armies trained to show men how to farm a field,
And raise a cow, as poor enjoy the certain yield,
Would give a strong right step up, rebuild men’s pride,
Take away that bitter cup that mankind drunk, as their pride died
For lack of ways to make a living,
Teach their children, protect their health, limit their giving
The real true base of world-wide wealth.

AVOID THE TSUNAMI

I am not a prophet, and not very wise,
But I stand in assurance as I’m led to advise
That a nation divided will surely fall,
Or give up division, for the sake of us all.

Terrible hurricanes have ravished our shores,
But they are minimal to storms at our doors;
Broken nations don’t break by storm,
But rather division, which becomes the norm.

I applaud discussion of world-wide events,
But partisan division makes a nation too tense
To work as a union in brotherhood
To establish in love that which is good.

Let us look for the best either party suggests,
Forgetting election as we meet the tests
That life imposes like hurricane winds
Lest the quake of division bring tsunami ends.

BEE ATTITUDE

How strange that a bee
On a greeting card
Could excite down deep in me
This poetry writing bard.
Perhaps it’s not the bee
That gives me this insight,
But she who brought the bee to be
Who causes me to write.

Far sweeter than the honey,
That honey bee can make,
Is love so bright and sunny
From which we all partake
When Lara, with her happy smile
Creates her personal gift,
Enabling us to walk that mile
In which we often need a lift.

So, as through dark and dreary days,
With husband worn and sick,
My sister often in a daze,
Hardly knowing which path to pick,
Lara’s bee will lead the way
To help her send her friends a smile
Which, in turn, will cheer her day,
As she walks this troubled mile.

May God bless you, Lara,
Even as you have blessed my sister,
And her very sick husband,
Both of whom have a very high
Interest in bees. Love, Orion

ARROGANCE TO ACCEPTANCE

Arrogance died as Joseph applied
The mercies of God to sins of his brothers;
Is freedom denied where memory has died
To pain we have suffered through deeds of others?

Joseph now ruled where he had been schooled
To trust in God though he was in prison;
Is faith not so tooled that man is not fooled
By hardship in life as faith has arisen?

Be still in your heart and look for that part
That God has in mind for days in your life.
For faith’s great art is to know from the start
That there is great profit in all of our strife.

Be still and know that God loves us so
That He can make pain into unending pleasure;
His Spirit will show where we are to go
To inherit with joy the greatest of treasure.

We have a treasure beyond any measure
When we truly trust in God and man;
We cannot measure our heavenly treasure,
But God and man certainly can.

BOY’S TINKERTOYS

Man and his tinkertoys!
Skyscrapers, tall and strong!
Imaginations of bigger boys
Challenge problems of housing throng.

Megalopolis spread!
Eating up farm land
Brings to us a certain dread
That spread out cities get that land.

Can we go “up” instead of “out”,
To save farm land to furnish food?
It is the future we think about,
And pray “no food” does not intrude!

Fancy prices buy the farms,
Spreading cities day by day;
We welcome them with open arms,
Thinking not of what we’ll pay.

So, tinkertoys, keep our boys
Building dreams toward the sky,
While farmers of the land rejoice
In growing food in good supply.

ABOVE WEST 84TH

Here I sit above the street,
Watching cars and people pass,
Quite above the trials they meet
In the midst of life’s morass.

Some seem hurried as they move
Along West eighty-fourth;
Others seem more in the groove
With what life now brings forth.

I wonder why some look so sad,
As if life dealt a losing hand,
And others smile and look so glad
One would think they owned the land?

Some seem to have the look of pain
As worry shapes their wrinkled brow,
And others seem to walk on gain;
All their life a “Golden Cow”!

Is life unfair in what she gives;
Does she let favorite people win?
Or does luck hinge on how man lives,
Or simply what he’s involved in?

Happiness, divined by choice,
Is attitude we strive to build
Until it is an inner voice
Pronouncing peace that we have willed?

CHARACTER STUDY

The character of man is seldom discerned
By looking at his clothes,
But much of his actual nature learned
By hearing what he knows.

It is also true that no man is wise
Simply because he is good at rhymes,
But rather more able to advise
If he is acquainted with most times.

What he has learned, plus what he has done,
Combine to build his knowledge;
Then people he joins in labor and fun,
May grant degrees not earned in college.

Great character is earned by strong outreaches,
Seeking to meet the needs of our brothers;
Without outreach, our character impeaches
The good reputation we might have with others.

DARKEST HOURS

Darkest hours before the dawn
Are hours we can’t depend upon;
Too dark to tell the story well,
They make us draw back in our shell.
And often when the dawn arrives,
We find they have not harmed our lives.

So rush not madly in the dark,
But seek more light and then embark;
Wait for dawn and then you’ll see
How your day was meant to be.
God puts his best is all his plan
So, in the dark, as best you can,
Look by faith into His face
And count upon His Saving Grace.

A MIGHTY MOVE

For twenty years I’ve lived right here,
And felt so very much at home;
That this was home was very clear,
Nor did I really want to roam.

For all those years except these three,
Since my wife went home to heaven,
Sandcreek Road was home to me;
No better home could I be given.

But without her, this home died too;
The house was here; the home was gone;
Days were gray and I was blue,
Nor was there much to count upon.

But then there came my bride to be,
With eyes that sparkled like the stars;
I looked through bars excluding me;
But soon our love would break those bars.

So both our houses were our homes,
One more house than we needed,
And combing reason with finer combs,
Emotional ties soon receded.

So now this place is up for sale,
And we are running to and fro;
The winds of change are like a gale,
As we prepare this place to go.

And what a pleasant storm to me,
For God has truly changed my life,
And made it more as it should be
In one house with my Sweet Wife.

And am I ever happy with this decision, Honey!

AS OLD AS WE FEEL

Sometimes I think I’m old
Sometimes I think I’m young
But if the truth be told,
It won’t be by the tongue.

For though my friends encourage me,
Affirming my well being,
My body says it’s plain to see
My muscle tone is fleeing.

At times I’m really shook
And feel so very shy
As youngster say, “How young you look!”
When I feel like I’ll die!

When Uncle Arthur racks my bones
So I can’t walk a line,
And I can’t hear the telephones,
No matter what the kind;

When most of what I eat and drink
Is what the doctor ordered
Then I feel I’m on the brink
Of where this life is bordered.

A truth I heard some years ago
Met me with strong appeal;
And I still hear its strong echo:
“We are no older than we feel!”

So all my days must spring brand new,
And find me on the run,
So now, Old Age, I say to you,
“Don’t mess with me until I’m done!”