Blog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 

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Leisure – 19 July 2006
By Mary T. Hoffman

While in our kitchen preparing our large tossed salad this morning, I listened to an old tape of poems. One of them was Leisure by the Welsh poet and writer W.H. Davies (William Henry Davies). Listening to this poem brought to mind a quotation by Henry David Thoreau:

“If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen.” ~Henry David Thoreau

Leisure
By W.H. Davies

What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.

For more quotations, see:
http://www.all-creatures.org/quote.html 

For poems and stories, see:
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetrydir.html

Go on to: Cancer and Exercise – 20 July 2006
Return to: “Wars and Rumors of Wars” – 18 July 2006
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