Our Future A Poems Collection by Charles Elford Our Future Copyright © 2009 by Charles Elford All Rights Reserved Smashwords Edition 1.1 November 2009 License Note: This ebook is licensed for personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be sold or given away to other people expect to members of your immediate family. If you would like to share this book with other people, please purchase another copy from your provider or Smashwords.com. Please respect the copyright of the author and any author whose creative works you enjoy. OUR FUTURE Have you ever on a starry night, Gazed deep and high into the sky, Stirred yourself and felt you might Dare yourself to dream to try, To fling yourself into those heights On weightless wings, to stars to fly To feel no burden in serene flight To feel a calm which cannot die? It is natural for Space to yearn, For distant lights and globes to long For souls desire and passions burn To know those vast and countless throngs On hopes we may someday discern Anothers sweet and joyous songs And grow ourselves enough to earn Those endless realms where we belong. END FOUR SEASONS OF A FOREST FOREST SPRING In the deepness Of the Forest Midst the winters Final chorus And the sighs Of waning fury Comes a gentle Waking flurry Fog swirls tween The tall fir trees, Needles rustle In the breeze Waves of damp air Fogs cool breath Infuse new Life All through the Depth Winters past But cant decide Another storm And then subsides Buds push out To turn to flowers Sun comes through Then gentle showers Scratch of squirrels In search of food, Crunch of leaves Throughout the Wood Cries of birds In search of mates With a Rush The Forest awakes. END Forest Summer The Spring rains are over And now all around Summers dry hills Are dusty and brown Dried pods and flowers Crops from the Spring Waiting for next rains new life to bring, Now faded and brittle Covering the ground Calm and enduring Life swings around Little things scurry Anxious with haste Gathering their fill up No time to waste Knowing their season Ends with first cold Knowing they must find All they can hold Chattering playfully While hiding their keep Preparing themselves For their long Winters sleep Dust drifting dreamily Through the hot air All of life seemingly Calm with no care But stifling calmness Belies the dead Still As the Forest prepares For Falls inrushing chill. END Forest Fall Now the days shorten, A light chills in the air. Something is warning All Life to beware. Throngs of birds chattering, Hawk screeching on high Sounds piercing anxiously Through deep blue sky. Down below animals Race through the trees, Desperately foraging, Last bits to seize, Sallying warily forth From their nests, Grabbing their last fills Before their long rests. Patches of cold fog Steal through the trees, Blustery winds break Dry limbs in the breeze. Tween dry heat and damp cold The skirmishes rage, To win their dominion Oer Falls flighty days. The year has been good, The growth healthy and long, A good harvest made animals Plenty and strong. As they turn to their nests, For sleep winter will bring, All Life bid their farewells To meet newly in Spring. END Forest Winter A thundering icy Front blowing forth The frigid dry air, Invades from the North, Smashing through trees and brush To test what will fail Crashing all weak branches Down in the gale. Then wind retreats and pulls Back whence it came Drawing the foggy dark Clouds and the rain. Into the forest They creep quiet and still Clasping all Life with Their coating of chill, Till wet with the damp And stiff with the cold The forest is clenched In a tight icy hold. And the arctic night breath Returns more to blow Changing the rain and the Fog to thick snow. The forest turns quiet and Soft and dead still While the snow gently blankets Trees, valleys and hills, Erasing the forms and the Holes as it deepens Making all sleeping things Equal and even. Then the storm fades To blue sky and bright light Oer a thick soft cover Of dazzling white. The forest will rest Under fleecy robe deep Till the warm breath of Spring Stirs her up from her sleep. END Fog Flight This morn I feel A chilling damp A fog swept high From distant shore Encircling round Each roof and lamp Invading, piercing Lifes inner core Though shivery cold It wakes the senses Clears the thoughts Removes defenses Lets the mind Float through skies blue, Restore the Kind, And see the True As though the load Of earthly weight No longer binds Nor can dictate The minds free float From earth unfazed The Souls glad flight Through joyous days. END ON THE BUTTING OF A RAM My Child, with Sorrow I did hear Of that which spoiled thy mirth and cheer How thou canst scarce sit, move, or stand Since an unkind meeting with a Ram, Who calmly in his stall did lie, But watched until thou turned thy eye, And quickly to his feet did jump And bashed his head against thy Rump. To save thyself and prevent that Thou shouldst procure thyself a bat And if young Ram this once more tries, Then whack him good between the eyes. END DESERT SONG Furious winds gainst slumbering stone Over the eons molding Shaping sculptured towers tall Or canyons deep with painted walls A unique creation unfolding Home to the eagle and buffalo To coyotes howling nightly Barbed cactus blooming And setting sun looming Oer desert rocks so brightly Gods of the Earth and Fathers of Men who created here for so long Such inspiring scenes, Come to listen and dream When the desert lands burst into song. END Promise in the Wind The wind which whispers through the hills, Breathing new breath into all Life Calms the Spirit and soothes all ills. The wind which roars through canyons deep, Bringing the power to mold the Earth Cries to all Men to awake from sleep. The wind which soars to Heavens door, And brings back peace to yearning hearts says, Freedom comes, the fast is oer. The Souls of men who long for mirth, Who strive for wisdom, truth and laughter, May cross this time into reborn Earth, And live free Beings forever after. END