MY BOOK

The greatest thing I can leave on the Earth

Is a book to be loved and read,

Full pages of love and kindly advice

That will linger long after I'm dead.

The song of a brooklet, the bay of a hound,

For a child in a small city yard.

The creak of new harness, the smell of fresh earth,

For the farmer who's aged and retired.

The call of a quail on a clear autumn morn,

For the hunter who loves the outside.

The neigh of a beautiful spirited mount

For the horseman whose love is to ride.

A purple topped mountain, a clear running stream,

For the restless who somehow must roam.

A rose covered trellis, an old picket gate,

For the aged who are content to be home.

Full pages of hope for the weak and the poor,

That their lot might be easier to bear,

For tho' they have clothing and shelter and food,

They always need someone to care.

And last but not least, some kindly advice,

To the ones who have wandered astray.

Tho' they have a full life with their treasures down here

This is but the first mile of the way.

John L. Gwaltney

OUR HOME

God blessed the country we call home,

The grassy hills, the stately trees,

The rugged purple mountain tops,

The broad streams and the inland seas

The steep uneven mountain slopes,

The fertile valley down below,

Rich waving fields of golden grain,

The tasseled corn fields row on row.

The broad expance of prairie land,

The rippling grass, the grazing herds,

The summer home of upland game,

The bounding deer, the calling birds.

Black throated coal mines rear their heads,

Sleek working oil wells row on row.

Their very presence giving proof

Of rich deposits down below.

The richest Nation on the Earth,

With abundant wealth for one and all.

Yet nations like ours, in the past,

Have grown to towering heights, to fall.

But a special blessing we possess,

Though other peoples may not see.

For born in each American

Is the will to live forever free.

John L. Gwaltney