Poems (Barker)/To Grandma on her 74th Birthday
On Her 74th Birthday.
Another year on its noiseless wings,
Has silently slipped away,
Another link in the golden chain,
With a halo of brightness that must remain
When you leave this home of clay.
Has silently slipped away,
Another link in the golden chain,
With a halo of brightness that must remain
When you leave this home of clay.
O, Grandma, darling, another year
We have felt your tender love—
Like the gentle rain on the tender flowers,
It has brightened and bettered this life of ours
Like a blessing from above.
We have felt your tender love—
Like the gentle rain on the tender flowers,
It has brightened and bettered this life of ours
Like a blessing from above.
Into your life no joy has come,
Without its companion, pain;
Around your heart we would twine to day
The flowers that never can fade away
And only a joy remain.
Without its companion, pain;
Around your heart we would twine to day
The flowers that never can fade away
And only a joy remain.
Each day, each hour, you have nearer drawn,
To the banks of the silent sea.
Each day, each hour, we have held you fast,
Lest you slipped forever from our grasp
To the great eternity.
To the banks of the silent sea.
Each day, each hour, we have held you fast,
Lest you slipped forever from our grasp
To the great eternity.
And dearest Grandma, each year but binds
Still closer these hearts of ours—
And we fain would keep you, until the light
Of our own poor vessel is lost in night,
And we enter the port of flowers.
Still closer these hearts of ours—
And we fain would keep you, until the light
Of our own poor vessel is lost in night,
And we enter the port of flowers.
O, patient Grandma! your life has been
Like a beacon of peace and joy;
Your hours of anguish, of suffering deep,
In a harvest from which your soul will reap,
And nothing can destroy.
Like a beacon of peace and joy;
Your hours of anguish, of suffering deep,
In a harvest from which your soul will reap,
And nothing can destroy.
Sweet, patient heart, may thy life to come
Be filled with a constant peace:
May the seeds you have scattered each day on earth
Spring up in all their wonderful worth
When your soul has found release.
Be filled with a constant peace:
May the seeds you have scattered each day on earth
Spring up in all their wonderful worth
When your soul has found release.
We know, dear Grandma, the golden gate
For your soul will be open wide,
Could we loose for a moment these golden bands,
Could we loose from your own our trembling hands,
You would drift out with the tide.
For your soul will be open wide,
Could we loose for a moment these golden bands,
Could we loose from your own our trembling hands,
You would drift out with the tide.
But, no! sweet Grandma, we hold you fast,
And our hearts with gladness sing,
With a tighter grasp and a firmer hold,
'Till we tread together the "streets of gold,"
In a land of endless spring.
And our hearts with gladness sing,
With a tighter grasp and a firmer hold,
'Till we tread together the "streets of gold,"
In a land of endless spring.