Best Greenleaf Poems

"For all sad words of tongue and pen,
 the saddest are these, 'It might have been'."              
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Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these ‘it might have been’—John Greenleaf Whittier  


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George W. Towne

1847 – 1899

From Iowa I came by restless wagon train.
From the mid-west I arrived 
With satchel and silken scalp still intact.
I read Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to pass the time.
I read the Gospels of John and Luke.
I read Harriet Beecher Stowe and
I read John...

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Tillie Lydston

1843 – 1905

I was forty six
When I first saw the hills.
Those most magical eastern hills of my home.
I loved Whittier as my mother
And it saddens me I can’t be there again.
I left behind family and friends in faraway Illinois
For those wondrously beautiful eastern hills,
Where...

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Milton Brown

1822 – 1917

I knew C. W. Harvey.
Knew him and liked him.
I lived on the first floor of his Greenleaf Hotel
By Bailey Street.
Lived and thrived on the flowered verandah.
Sipped lemonade and gummed soft bread
In the swank dining room.
Talked and listened into the long afternoons
With the...

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Fireflies’ Prelude
By Stacy Savage (Indiana)

The sun surrenders
To the sky
As the moon awaits
With his winking eye

To begin his routine
In the rosy wake
So the sun may take
Her needed break.

Fireflies come
And bid adieu
In their evening performance,
Right on cue,

Above the meadows
And prairie grass—
Pulsating flashes
As they pass

And dance in the...

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I stood before the mirror
in my violet cotton shirt
and jeans from the Gap,
with combed brown hair 
falling just below my shoulders,
my backpack in tow.
Small but mighty,
there I was,
ready to be one of 
the big kids now.

I held on tightly to my mom's hand
on the corner...

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Ivie Twombley
1884-1913

Lottie Gordon and me were always together.
Joined at the hip, most folks would say;
You never met two ladies quite like us.
If you had known Lottie and Ivie,
The two of us at age 21,
If you had gotten to know us for our real selves;
Wild bachelorettes...

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William Sawden

1893-1917

On the southern facade,

Of the Golden Rule Store,

On Greenleaf Avenue to the north,

There is a single window,

On the third floor up.

Behind the white half open curtain, 

Facing south and southwest,

A sixteen year old boy, once employed there,

Was on his knees facing east.

He was praying...

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Emma Riesgo

1897-1919

Alas, I was just a simple soul.

Born second in the corner house,

Over on old Washington Street,

Just a short stroll,

From the college there,

My mother labored for 9 hours

In the sweating shadows,

Upstairs there,

In my dead grandmother’s bed,

And out I slunk wet and slippery,

Gasping but not suffocating.

When...

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The King of Air........... 
Wears a crown of pale blue 
Chased in clouds of white 
Shaped like wings too 

Robes of blue 
Swirls of white 
The king of light............ 
Rising in the air, 
majestic flight 

The wind blew........ 
like a startled colt 
In his calm.........

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Glenn Hervey

1880-1918

On the last day of my life,
I told God not to take me,
Not until some time past 3 p.m.,
My alone time for drinks, smokes 
And other delicate divertissements.
I prayed from my deathbed for one last cigar,
And the required two hours to smoke it.
But God...

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In my youth I was completely engrossed,
By poetry along the byways nailed to a post!
It wasn't composed by John Greenleaf Whittier;
No, the authors were much more wittier!
I speak of Burma Shave signs once all the craze,
But can only be found in museums nowadays.
I don't claim...

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I boarded as a martyr, 
not to play with scarlet sins
convinced my way was chartered, 
I'd be safe in holy folds
but patient, pregnant umbras came,
their membranes black and blue,
all bred at sea in countless numbers
just to consecrate eternity.

Ripe thunderheads churned buttered skies
and eerie purple dragons...

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From Cabin Boy To Grateful Recollections By Old Sailor

Kindness, heart and deep joy, as I remember you
I child, a mere boy, innocent without a clue.
Your attention and love, a blessing warm and true
In Heaven far above, I know you got your due!

I wept day you...

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