Altho unseen, they are not wholly gone. A friendship once established cannot die. A joy once tasted sweetly lingers on, A perfumed presence never seen but nigh. In the great drama of the fleeting years They come upon the stage and play their part. Then, tho each wondrous vision disappears, It leaves its deathless image on the heart. Film Judgment (1924) The man who reads the titles, The man who tramps our toes, The man who holds the end seat Whatever comes and goes, The man who laughs so loudly That all the house can hear, The man who with his snoring Outrages every ear. All died, and took their journey Where the unseen begins, And stood before the judgment To answer for their sins. They got a common sentence. Each one was ordered flat To sit and fume forever Behind a picture hat. Finding God (1924) I found Him in the whisp’ring pines, And in the beauty of the rose; I found Him where the first star shines, Above the Summer day’s soft close; I found Him where the storms grew wild; I found Him in the happy face And manner of a little child, Revealing loveliness and grace. I found Him in the swinging suns That wheel their way through endless space, And in the humblest path that runs To love’s sequestered dwelling place; I found Him where the violets dwell, And where the bluebirds wheel and dart; But never really knew Him well Until I found Him in my heart. The Firefly (1924) We’ve never gotten to it, With all our learning keen. We simply cannot do it With any fine machine. Old Nature’s lanterns greet us When dusk succeeds the sun. A thousand miles they beat us On all we’ve ever done. In spite of shining crescent And starbeam’s boasted light, The firefly’s incandescent Most glorifies the night. Across the meadows flying Cold light it generates. We, too, have long been trying, But Time still stands and waits. The God of the Beginning (1924) IN the beginning was God. Beyond Time’s threshold he hovered, Back of the earliest dawn or the flush of the first fair spring. Farther than eye has disclosed or the keenest thought has discovered, Moved in the silences vast the Maker of everything. Back of the first heart-ties and the first warm heart-fires lighted, Back of gleaming sky, the sea, and the shining sod, Back of the first fond dream that a hopeful heart e’er sighted, Lingered the Soul Divine and brooded the Love of God. IN the beginning was God. O’er struggle and strife diurnal, The void, and the mist, and the darkness, the mire, and the slime, and the clay, Through the long course of the ages has watched the Spirit Eternal Seeking for men the dawn of a better and kindlier day. Brooding, watching, and hoping--but, withal, ever beseeching, Over the track of time a saving shade it has cast, And into the distant future as far as the years are reaching. In the beginning was God, and God shall be at the last.