Inspirational Selections

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Contents.

Recall., by Phil Antonsen
Enduring Love., by Trisha
A Child's Thought of God., by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
With The Old Breed., by Author Unknown

Mattie Blaylock wrote the following: The poem Recall was written by Phil Antonsen, my husband's maternal grandfather, who passed away on May 9, 2000. It can be found on the gates of some of the military cemeteries in the South Pacific. Paw served in the Montana National Guard from the age of 15 and served with the Marine Corps during World War II. (We are proud to have served with Mattie Blaylock on TSF team - D'Wild West).

Recall

When that last recall has echoed;
Crossed a far and distant shore.
When we turn our faces homeward;
From wars hell-ridden door.

Then we'll turn our faces upward;
And kneel in deepest prayer.
Asking God to grant them favor;
The ones we're leaving there.

Oh, God! Please let them serve you;
On heavens star-lit shore.
Please let our buddies enter;
Through your kingdom's only door.

Though their footsteps sometimes wandered;
From that straight and narrow trail.
Their march was never halted;
When the bullets fell like hail.

Though at church you seldom saw them;
And their prayers were said the least.
They returned the life you gave them;
To preserve a lasting peace.

That the churches and cathedrals;
Might pay homage unto thee.
They gave up their life in battle;
That to worship might be free.

As commander of the heavens,
Please listen to this prayer.
And try to grant this favor;
For the ones we're leaving there.

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Enduring Love., by Trisha who was diagnosed in 1993 with MS , "It is helpful to try to capture how I am feeling about life, my family, the illness . I didn't choose poetry, it chose me."

Love, joy, sadness and pain,
Throughout our lives what do we gain?
Our family and friends who love us still,
even when they can't comprehend how we feel,
the simple joy of being together yet.
No greater need has ever been met.
The sights, the sounds of life around,
My heart in love they do surround.
A smile, a passing touch,
These can mean so very much.
The sadness and pain I will leave behind.
The love and joy will be here for others to find.
Without words speak from your heart
and know it's there we will never be apart.

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A Child's Thought of God. by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is one of her many poems of strength. There was nothing morbid in the words which came from her hushed, darkened sick room. Indeed, her spirit was never tamed, and she herself confessed that one of her faults was "head-longness;" that she snatched parcels open instead of untying the string, and tore letters instead of cutting them. In Browning's poems, which contain numerous beautiful allusions, there is nothing more beautiful and more descriptive than the lines shown below.

They say that God lives very high,
But if you look above the pines
You cannot see our God, and why?

And if you dig down in the mines
You never see Him in the gold;
Though, from Him, all that's glory shines.

God is so good, He wears a gold
Of heaven and earth across His face -
Like secrets kept, for love, untold.

But still I feel that his embrace
Slides down by thrills, through all things made,
Through sight and sound of every place.

As if my tender mother laid
On my shut lids, her kisses' pressure,
Half - waking me at night, and said,
"Who kissed you through the dark, dear
guesser?"

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With The Old Breed. by E. B. Sledge is probably in the library of every avid reader in the Mobile, Alabama. For our native son spent his teenage years at Georgia Cottage which was the ancestral home of author Augusta Evans Wilson. When he was 18 years old, he dropped out of Marion Institute in Marion, Alabama to join up with the U.S. Marines. His WWII book became an instant hit with Mobilians and each signed copy he inscribed under his name the following:

"And when to heaven he goes
To St. Peter he'll tell
Another Marine reporting Sir
I've served my time in hell."
Author Unknown

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Graphics by Penny Parker.