VERSE, OLD AND NEW

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16838, 29 December 1928, Page 10

VERSE, OLD AND NEW

CREATION. |Firet came the Dreams; ami still they go , About the world from night to night. Haunting our pillows with a show Of flickering terror or delight. But these wore vain, and came to naught, Futile alike for joy or strife; 80 Nature, at a second thought, Added the Law, and called it Life. And so we live by logic, know Cause and Effect, and sequences. But. still we are perplexed, and go Lost among things we cannot guess. For Terror still is strong, and Pain, And unto Evil power is given, Till God create the world again, And add the Love, and call it Heaven. E.S.B. MYSTERY. Through Fairyland in childhood unafraid We followed where she led in swift surprise, And clasped her hand beneath enchanted skies. The world our toy, with Mystery we played. Yet soon from her sweet spell we fled dismayed, When doubt and sorrow wove a dark disguise . That .veiled the promise of her haunt-■.-.■-.irig eyes, LVbil hid all Life, and Death, beneath its shade. But when, grown weary, it is time to rest, No joys to win, and no more tears to weep, She comes once more, compassionate and fair, She calls again her children to her breast. 0, follow, follow to the Gates of Sleep,— Not Mystery, but Love, stands smiling there! L. A. Lefevre. CAROL 0' BETHLEHEM. Mary stood at the manger-sido With her elbows on the rim; He smiled the whimsical sweet smile That shamed the cherubim, Then straightway tossed His little legs, The hay-pricks tickled Him. Mary laughed and bent down low — Mary, blessed of God's grace!— He curled His little pink toes up And. gurgled in her face; Then pulled her hair right sturdily In that calm holy place. Ay, Jesus was a baby too, And plucked His mother's hair — She loved Him much more thus, I ween Than as King anywhere. —John MeClure. HE COMES AGAIN. I watch from my high vantage place Thp broken ranks return— I scan, with eagerness, each face Until my eyelids burn. I mind "not, years have pass'd away; To me, it always is to-day. ) I see his eager face alight, His boyish form in khaki clad. He waves, and marches from my sight, God bless, and keep you, soldier lad, The hopeless years have pass'd away, He comes again to me, to-day. v Day of remembrance and of prayer! I could not bear the passing years

rf 1 had not this hour to spare From sorrow's unavailing tears. Boy of my heart, so long away Hp and his comrades meet, to-day. Tlu'v come from near, and pome from With ■mcm'ry stirred-once more akinAnd some pan show a long-healed scar And some are deeply searr'd within— To some the world is always grey

But they Shall reunite to-day. They who have conquer 'd darkest fears And side by side, in trenches lain— Breathing—or breathless —thro' the years Immortal, shining souls, must gain! He waves to me across the way Ho throws a kiss to me to-day. —Laura Mack-Rea.