Posted by
INTHENOW on Saturday, September 19, 2009 6:26:10 AM
I posted an excerpt back in
January by Don Miller, the former Marine turned world traveling missionary. He is also a poet. Here are two examples that need no introduction:
I saw injustice in the land,
I heard the cheated cry,
But turned my back, for help should come
From someone else, not I.
I pulled the curtains when I heard
The screams of Genevieve;
It’s not my habit to intrude
In matters such as these.
I read with angst the passing of
My famous idoled stars,
But scarce gave notice of the men
Off dying in our wars.
To hear a person pray to God
Would really get me riled,
But mute was I when “Choice” they claimed
To kill an unborn child.
I cheered when grants were proffered to
The arts to showcase smut,
But when the men with morals spoke,
I tried to shut them up.
When inept leaders sat to rule
And the vilest men were praised;
Imagined I the change was good,
As I hoped for better days.
Believed I all the nightly news
Was true and bias free,
And trusted that my government
Would take good care of me.
I followed all the liberal rant,
I did what I was told
Until too late I realized
My freedoms I had sold.
Farewell to Friends
When I was young and time was too,
I couldn’t wait till school was through;
For Summer held a thousand charms,
So rushed I to her waiting arms.
In her embrace we wiled away
Each long and happy school-less day;
I had no cares, no math, no verbs;
No book reports, no scolding words.
The fragrance of the new mown grass,
July the fourth’s bright firework's flash;
The swimming pool at Oakley Park,
The lightening bugs once it was dark.
The ice cream man still walked his beat,
The gaslights then still lit the streets;
We’d hotdogs grilled in dancing flames,
And played in gutters if it rained.
The time stood still for children then,
It seemed that youth would never end;
No cares could mar our happiness,
We thrived in childish blissfulness.
We could not see what lay ahead,
Except at night we’d go to bed,
To welcome in another day
Once the night had slept away.
But some of those back then I knew,
Who lived and laughed and quickly grew
Into the men who marched away,
Have long in soldier’s coffins lay.
I thank you each for what you shared,
The times we played, the times we dared;
For golden memories long ago,
What it meant you’ll never know.
You may have slept in Flanders lea,
Or lay you down at Normandy;
On Iwo’s sands you may have died,
Or stemming Chosen’s yellow tide.
Perhaps in Nam you met your end,
Where ‘ere it was, I miss you friend;
And still you march, and fight and die,
From Eastern sands you pass me by.
Farewell, farewell, to youth, to age,
There’s nothing decades can assuage;
But all you meant to me back then,
Will still be with me till my end.
UPDATE: 22 Sep, 1210 CET
Just received another poem from Don…this time from Japan.
Revolt
You heard the shouts on every side,
The vitriol in them that cried;
The boisterous few would dare foment
The overthrow of government.
The rabble, mindless, went along,
They made a rude and noisy throng;
While with their ardent voice and pen
Those who led incited them.
These malcontents awakened dread,
From peon to the nation’s head;
So for strong measures it was time,
To turn their words into a crime.
They’d quell descent, they’d demonize
All those who dared to criticize;
Until the fractious of the land
Were silenced by the law’s demand.
But history is a faithful flame
Casting light on whence we came;
Up from that tumult long ago
The greatest nation thence would grow.
I’m thankful for the Whigs that chose
To stand against the Redcoat foes;
While cried the Tory’s sniveling,
“Damn this land but Save the king.”
All through that struggle lives were lost,
For freedom comes at terrible cost;
Lives and fortunes swept away,
Our debt to them we can’t repay.
But now those freedoms, dearly won,
Are threatened by the very ones,
We put in office to defend
The constitution, not amend.
If we don’t learn from history,
And cherish precious liberty;
Then all our nation’s woes replete,
We’re destined, sadly, to repeat.