It has been a long time since my heart was free to express itself. This is the Thanksgiving Day, the only day that I celebrate with my family and friends. I have a heart filled with thankfulness and joy. I still have friends, I called them today just to tell them I care and love them and am thankful for them. I heard from Dorothy and Tadeusz and Peter and Suzi and Barbara, and Mark, and Art and Donna...among others...I have also bought almost 20 hours of phone time to Poland and to Australia. Still to call is Cyndi and Co. Some of my friends are too hurting to keep in touch. Many of them keep asking "why"? Specially when difficulties seem to downgrade the quality of their life. Some are forced to change their long time plans for life due to health problems, accidents and unexpected social twists. What can I offer my friends on this day of "thankfulness"? I have collected some poems from unknown authors [unknown to me]and am posting these for the comfort of both my own and my friends. Happy "turkey day" sweet Yankees!




I May Not Know


I may not know the way entire
Beyond the winding stretch
Around the juts and up the hills
The lane i cannot sketch
But this I know that just ahead
My Fathers love and care
Point out the way, as they do know
For God is everywhere.

Quite unawares my paths of bliss
May change to rougher plain
While I may fail to comprehend
A road of fear and pain
Of this I feel , yes reassured
My God Jehovah true
Has chiseled out this very path
No other way would do.

May I not bravely tread the road
The Father points as mine?
And though I fear, lean hard upon
His strength and love divine
It matters not what turns and twists
How dark the way may be
Mine is the joy of trusting Him
Who planned it all for me.









Friendship

I want to laugh when I know you are gay
And smile at the funny things you say
I want to rejoice in your victory
As though you have done it all for me
I want to be always staunch and true
That's the kind of friend I would be to you.

I want you to know when I take your hand
That here is one who will understand
Who will feel the throb of your heart in pain
And long for the time when it's healed again.
Who will know, when shadows come your way
And will watch with you till the dawn of day.

If others scoff as they sometimes do
Remember a friend who will see you through
If you travel the world, no matter where
There is one who will follow you with prayer.
Why, there is hardly a thing I wouldn't do,
Because, my friend I believe in you.







Be a Friend

Be a friend, you don't need money
Just a disposition, sunny
Just the wish to help another
Get along someway or other.
Just a kindly hand extended
Out to one who is unbefriended.
Just the will to give or lend
This will make you someone's friend.


Be a friend. You don't need glory
Friendship is a simple story.
Pass by trifling error blindly
Gaze on honest efforts kindly.
Cheer the one who's bravely trying
Pity him who's sadly sighing
Just a little labor spent
Are the duties of a friend.

Be a friend. The pay is bigger
Though not written by a figure
Than is earned by people clever
In what's merely self-endeavor.
You'll have friends instead of neighbors
For the profits of your labors
You'll be richer in the end
Than a prince, if you're a friend.






He Knows

He knows the bitter, weary way
The endless striving day by day
The souls that weep, the souls that pray
He knows

He knows how hard the road has been
The clouds that came our lives between
The wounds the world has never seen.
He knows







He sees my tears

Sometimes in my weakness I cannot pray
I can only sob, and yet God hears.
And in tender love He answers me
For He knows my needs, and He sees my tears.







The Little Things

Oh it's just the little homely things
The unobtrusive, friendly things
The won't -you-let-me-help-you things
That make our pathway light

And it's just the jolly, joking things
The never-mind-the-trouble things
The laugh-with-me-it's-funny things
That make the world seem brighter

For all the countless famous things
The wondrous record-making things
Those never-can-be-equaled things
That all the papers cite.

Aren't like the little human things
The everyday-encountered things
The just-because-I-like-you things
Make us happy quite.

So here's to all the little things
The done-and-then-forgotten thing
Those Oh,-it's-simply-nothing things
That make the life worth the fight.









Because You Prayed

Because you prayed for me
I found the strength I needed for my task
The courage I have lacked before, the faith to see
Beyond my narrow world,
New joy for pain I found and zeal
To press on forward strong of heart again
Because you prayed

Because you prayed today
I found it was not hard to face the dawn
Take up again the work I laid away
But yesterday, and shoulder it
And dare to smile a bit
And find a blessing, I'd not dreamed was there
Because you prayed

Because you prayed for me
Tonight I seemed to reach and find your hand
Close by, as I have known it would be
And somehow toil and turmoil needs must cease
It was as though
God to our hearts had softly whispered “peace”
Because you prayed