'Each in his own Tongue' by WH Carruth

[altariel]

The Wondering Minstrels is a poetry-by-email service that kindly sends out poetry and commentary on a (roughly) daily basis. Sometimes I like them, sometimes I don't. Anyway, I thought I'd add the ones that I like to my journal so that I don't lose track of them.



'Each in his own Tongue'

A fire-mist and a planet,
A crystal and a cell,
A jelly-fish and a saurian,
And caves where the cave-men dwell;
Then a sense of law and beauty
And a face turned from the clod, --
Some call it Evolution,
And others call it God.

A haze on the far horizon,
The infinite, tender sky,
The ripe, rich tint of the cornfields,
And the wild geese sailing high;
And all over upland and lowland
The charm of the golden-rod, --
Some of us call it Autumn,
And others call it God.

Like tides on a crescent sea-beach,
When the moon is new and thin,
Into our hearts high yearnings
Come welling and surging in:
Come from the mystic ocean,
Whose rim no foot has trod, --
Some of us call it Longing,
And others call it God.

A picket frozen on duty,
A mother starved for her brood,
Socrates drinking the hemlock,
And Jesus on the rood;
And millions who, humble and nameless,
The straight, hard pathway plod, --
Some call it Consecration,
And others call it God.

-- William Herbert Carruth
(1859-1924)

Comments

Thanks

[communicator.livejournal.com]

I forgot to say, that I have subscribed to wandering minstrels, after reading this post, and I distribute the poems around work when they arrive each day. So thanks very much for linking to it. I was particularly moved by the poem concerning the last gulf war

It has taken your whole self
to bring her undamaged to this moment,
and waiting in the desert at this moment
is a bomb that flings gasoline in a liquid sheet,

Re: Thanks

[altariel.livejournal.com]

I'm glad this was a good link for you. I think it's a marvellous service - plus the archive is great and the commentaries are always interesting.