IF GOD SHOULD GO ON STRIKE

How good it is that God above has never gone on strike,

Because He was not treated fair in things he didn’t like.

If only once He’d given up and said, "That’s it, I’m through!

I’ve had enough of those on earth, so this is what I’ll do:

I’ll give my orders to the sun – ‘cut off the heat supply,’

And to the moon- ‘give no more light, and run the oceans dry.

Then just to make things really tough and put the pressure on,

Turn off the vital oxygen till every breath is gone.

You know He would be justified, if fairness was the game,

For no one has been more abused or met with more disdain

Than God. And yet He carries on, supplying you and me

With all the favours of His grace, and everything for free.

Men say they want a better deal, and so on strike they go,

But what a deal we’ve given God, to whom all things we owe.

We don’t care who we hurt to gain the things we like;

But what a mess we’d all be in, if God should go on strike.

(Anon)

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BED IN SUMMER

In winter I get up at night

And dress by yellow candle light.

In summer, quite the other way,

I have to go to bed by day.

I have to go to bed and see

The birds still hopping on the tree,

Or hear the grown-up people’s feet

Still going past me in the street.

And does it not seem hard to you,

When all the sky is clear and blue,

And I should like so much to play,

To have to go to bed by day?

Robert Louis Stevenson 1850 – 1894

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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EARLY MORN

When I did wake this morn from sleep,

It seemed I heard birds in a dream;

Then I arose to take the air –

The lovely air that made birds scream;

Just as green hill launched the ship

Of gold, to take its first clear dip.

 

And it began its journey then,

As I came forth to take the air;

The timid stars had vanished quite,

The moon was dying with a stare;

Horses and kine and sheep were seen

As still as pictures, in fields green.

 

It seemed as though I had surprised

And trespassed in a golden world

That should have passed while men still slept!

The joyful birds, the ship of gold,

The horses, kine and sheep did seem

As they would vanish for a dream.

W. H. Davies 1871 – 1940

 

kine - old English for cattle