Furrows of Fancy

The farm boy to the barn is gone

With woolen mitts and mackinaw on;

He trots along the snow-packed path,

And like a mighty giant of Gath,

Defies the biting wind and frost;

Without a single moment lost

He soon unbars the great barn doors

And quick as flash begins his chores.

The stallion gives his stall a kick,

His customary morning trick;

The young colts give a gentle neigh

And do their appetites betray;

The old bull clanks his heavy chain,

To bellow forth a lusty grace

Before his meal, a little space.

A brief span and the feeding’s done

---Once more his flock’s affection’s won---

Out to the water trough he goes

To chop the ice with heavy blows;

The ice chips fly both high and wide

Till water splashes on every side;

The cold steel hoop his pant leg claims,

His mitts freeze stiff as harness hames.

The farm boy to the house returns

To where a wood fire brightly burns.

With lowered head and hunched-up back

He hastes along the snowy track;

He hears the phone wires zinging clear

And half-frozen sparrows chirping near;

At last, he nears the farmhouse door,

Quite glad he’s done his morning chore.

The Chickadee

Thou tiny bit of bird!

Blithest creature e’er I’ve heard;

Upside down upon a twig,

Of fear, thou carest not a fig.

What a tiny mite of flesh!

Ever blithesome; ever fresh;

How can you so friendly be

While my axe chops down your tree?

Your constant chirping is a perk

That brightens up my weary work;

And I shall ever grateful be

To you, my friendly chickadee.

War and Peace

When submarines have ceased to ply

Beneath the blue sea’s surface screen

And commerce crosses o’er the waves

And convoys are no longer seen;

When planes no longer from the sky

Blast homes and cities into bits

And populations in their fear

Forsake their subterranean pits;

When monstrous bugs of iron and steel

No longer creep on pillar wheels

And pleasure cars supplant the jeep

On all the motion picture reels;

When lustful lunatics of war

No longer shape their fiery darts;

When minds contrive to kill no more

And coal shall forge for peaceful arts;

When money goes to nurture life

And not to halt or maim or kill,

And all the nations, bound as one,

Shall speak the universal will;

Then, then, ye heroes of a peaceful cause

May clap your hands in grand applause.

The First Robin

Go tell your neighbours;

Go tell your kin;

You have seen a robin,

First harbinger of spring.

Sing welcome to that bird

Whose cheerful notes are heard

From every lawn and orchard tree,

To every hill and distant valley.

Go tell your neighbours;

Go tell your friends;

Robin redbreast heralds spring:

The time when cruel winter ends.

Speak gleefully of that bird

Whose cheerful notes have stirred

Sweet memories of the past

And anticipation of spring at last.