Poems:
Other Poems in the collection by Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.
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Poems
by Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr.
[1922]
- FROM your life's blood to coin a trenchant word--
- The past, the present and the future's ken
- To hold--and weave it to a ringing chord
- That sounds within the changing hearts of men.
- PEACE to his ashes!
- I cannot for the soul of me
- Sorrowing bow,
- Tho I search through the heart of me
- Grieve for him now.
- 'Tis well he is gone
- And heart-break is over,
- A husband he was
- But never a lover.
- THE slender moon in its silvery sheen,
- The golden stars with the blue between
- Of a dreamy, summer sky;
- And still the night winds sigh.
- With the silvery moon to whisper to,
- And the golden stars to kiss, mid the blue
- Of a listening, summer sky,
- For what should the night winds sigh?
- NEVER shall I die
- While this untrammeled spirit-mine
- Shall in hope's constellation shine
- And faith-embraced my soul shall lie.
- O WHY are there eyes like these,
- That sparkle and dapple and tease,
- So wide with the morning, so deep with the night,
- Dancing and gleaming in passioned delight?
- O why are there eyes like these?
- O why are there lips like these?
- Caressed by the southern breeze,
- That beckon and call and hold a slave
- All who therewith each soul-cry leave?
- O why are there lips like these?
- O why are there arms like these?
- That crumple and crush as they please
- A weak man's heart, and in their embrace
- Bring a glow of red to a strong man's face?
- O why are there arms like these?
- SUNLESS days and starless nights
- Bearing fruits of wrack and pain,
- Purge my lips of lover's vows,
- Bid me never hope again.
- Yet the longing of my soul,
- Oft denied, still faintly cries,
- For the heaven of your smile,
- And the starlight of your eyes.
- OLD Moloch walks the way tonight
- On Flander's poppied field,
- Where foe meets foe in steel and might
- And never one shall yield.
- Old Moloch of the fiery shrine,
- Deep in the throes of pain,
- Cries for the bleeding anodyne
- Of flesh of youths again.
- Heart of my heart went out tonight,
- Where Moloch holds the way,
- To lads of brown and black and white
- Who blazon Freedom's day.
- Tear down the shrine of Moloch there,
- From crimson field and glen,
- Tear down the shrine of Moloch where
- It shames the hearts of men.
- ON the dusty earth-drum
- Beats the falling rain;
- Now a whispered murmur,
- Now a louder strain.
- Slender, silvery drumsticks,
- On an ancient drum,
- Beat the mellow music
- Bidding life to come.
- Chords of earth awakened,
- Notes of greening spring,
- Rise and fall triumphant
- Over every thing.
- Slender, silvery drumsticks
- Beat the long tattoo--
- God, the Great Musician,
- Calling life anew.
- OUT of the silence
- I come to you,
- Bringing a love
- Free as the dew.
- I come and sing
- A heart's great love,
- And passion of soul
- Pure as a dove.
- But this I crave
- As you pass by--
- A smile on your lips,
- A light in your eye.
- THE little child crosses the street--
- Why does she wave to me?
- What sees she in my wasted form
- To hail so joyously?
- Her olive face and curly hair
- Are tidings of earth-peace,
- Her golden smile's a wreath of joy
- That bids my sorrows cease.
- To me she is a fairy sprite--
- A heavenly harbringer
- Whose sun-kissed eyes are songs of God--
- But what am I to her?
- I SOMETIMES wonder if the mighty God
- Cares aught about the little deeds of men;
- And if their day and time can reach his ken
- Or raise their breath above the hungry sod.
- Does He who lightly holds th' eternal rod,
- Now taut, now loose, the threads of Why and When?
- Giving passing heed--or be they one or ten--
- To one-time flesh but now the wind-blown clod?
- If men can die who never yet knew life,
- And, smiling, hold it is no strange affair;
- Or live when death were welcome boon of strife,
- Torn, broken sheaves the ghostly reapers spare;
- The saints must grieve for earthly sorrows rife,
- And God must heed, yea surely, God must care.
- A THOUSAND years of darkness in her face,
- She turns at last from out the centurys' blight
- Of labored moan and dull oppression's might,
- To slowly mount the rugged path and trace
- Her measured step unto her ancient place.
- And upward, ever upward towards the light
- She strains, seeing afar the day when right
- Shall rule the world and justice leaven the race.
- Now bare her swarthy arm and firm her sword,
- She stands where Universal Freedom bleeds,
- And slays in holy wrath to save the word
- Of nations and their puny, boasting creeds.
- Sear with the truth, O God, each doubting heart,
- Of mankind's need and Afric's gloried part.
- NOW with the dust that bore him he is one,
- Silent, into into earth's silent maw ye laid him.
- Dimmed is his light, as with the setting sun,
- He folds his steps unto the God who made him.
- When shall the weak stand and rejoice again
- To see his banner in the battle's light?
- When shall the humble hear his voice again
- Raised from the mountain of majestic right?
- O ye shall see that banner gleam again
- High o'er the ramparts of a nation's goal;
- O ye shall hear that voice redeem again
- The blood-stained conscience of a nation's soul.
- Rise ye that tremble 'mid such fearful moan,
- He stands annointed at Jehovah's throne.
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