A Poem Is

A poem is not like an airplane:

launched, then landing at a single place;

but it can land in many a brain

all at once, with healing and with grace.

Poems can fly a long, long way.

A poem is not like a freight car:

a single payload sent on request;

rather, a load uniquely on par

for each one who receives its bequest.

Poems deliver awesome weight.

A poem is not like a school room:

for all, a set, fixed curriculum.

A poem can lift us from our gloom,

to see in life an infinite sum.

Poems can teach love above hate.

A poem is not, as some may fear,

a waste of time or a crashing bore;

for every popular song we hear

is a poem set as music's core

(though some, as poems, aren't so great).

But a poem may fly us away.

It may carry our heaviest weights.

A poem may teach a new pathway

or empower what music creates.

Have you written a poem today?

Copyright ©2018, Paul H. Harder II

This poem is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 License.

Harder Times

Friend, I've got some Harder Times.

No, my life’s no worse than yours.

That was the title of the

Harder family newsletter

that my mother used to write.

My sister found a stack in

Mom's old boxes.

 

I think the whole thing started,

back in the early Fifties,

after Mom had overheard

Granddad Harder’s tired old joke

about a local skinflint:

"Old Stone is a hard man, but

I'm still Harder!"

Mom took that and ran with it.

While most folks were still writing

short notes in their Christmas cards,

she took the mimeograph,

the one she’d bought for church work,

and started a newspaper

on a small scale.

She had a homemade light box

that she used; with a stylus,

traced pictures on the stencil,

alongside the family news.

Before the Times ceased printing,

Mom upgraded to Xerox,

with photographs.

The Times never lost its soul,

as the creative outlet

of the amazing mind of

that young Bible college grad

whose mission field was family.

If Mom were still living now,

she'd be an avid blogger

and go viral.

Copyright ©2018, Paul H. Harder II

This poem is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 License.

A Fight for Right

Now, sight is not the source of light,

and fright is not the cause of night.

So, what strong drink

can make them think

that might will generate a right?

Copyright ©2018, Paul H. Harder II

This poem is licensed under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 License.