Hold On

When it seems your battle is all uphill
And you want to fight, but you've lost your will
When your hopes and dreams are standing still,
Have faith, my child, hold on

When each day seems tougher than before
And bad news keep knocking at your door
When you pray all night and walk the floor,
Have faith, my child, hold on

When the pain seems more than you can bear
And you think that life's not very fair
When others tend to gawk and stare,
Have faith, my child, hold on

When you wonder what your future holds,
The one that I still shape and mold
When you pray each day to me, be bold
Have faith, my child, hold on

When I made you in My image clear
And gave you life for all these years
When I saved you with My blood and tears,
I was saying, "Child, hold on."
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Covers

A variegated flicker through the dingy globe danced there,
Positioned by our bedside back where life was good and fair.
In the stillness of the nighttime aged voiced were heard,
Exuding warmth, much more than just the fire being stirred.

As we shivered and we snuggled in those times I do recall,
You couldn’t put a price on love enjoyed by us all.
A frozen ground of white encircled every building then
In the harshest part of wintertime for family and friends.

Country winters were so cold; it was hard to move about;
Beneath that stack of covers we didn’t want to venture out.
As slumber overtook us and the light of day had passed,
It seemed those memory-makin’ nights continually would last.

As our geriatric timepiece ticked its way on down to morn,
That rooster in the barnyard sounded off his skillful horn.
Arising in that weathered house of wood with roof of tin,
We knew, come night, we’d face those welcome covers once again.
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Lethal Ambition

The celebration came and went with fanfare;
I received a watch for giving thirty years,
But it wasn’t what I’d pictured in my mind’s eye
As I fought to gain control of rushing tears.

With children raised, a house paid for, now empty,
The best years yet to be, that’s how I’d planned,
But the tissue-eating cells became a hazard
And treatment was much more than she could stand.

Today I said goodbye to her the last time;
The day we’d worked so hard for never came.
I put off what I should have done much sooner
And I’m the only one that is to blame.

A bigger house, a newer car, more money,
I doggedly pursued more day by day.
While doing that, each one who really mattered
Got shoved aside by “things” along the way.

Viciously it seems I went in circles
With a misplaced love for everyone around.
Desiring to parlay the good to better,
I kept searching for the things already found.

If I could turn back time, I’d surely do it;
Life would be quite different; you would see.
I’d make the time to be with those I care for
And make the needed changes, first in me.

Thinking back to plans we made for our retirement,
I anticipated living much like kings,
But our careful plans were shattered by her passing
When death paid a visit with its lethal  sting 
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Last Goodbye

War had been declared by others and he’d made his feelings clear
That he had plans to do his part as I fought back tender tears.
I had watched as he’d enlisted and presented all the facts
While our U.S. forces gallantly fought to bring our soldiers back.

A war is quite a morbid thing; it destroys lives each day;
It’s imperative we pray for peace and let God settle things His way.
Lives are put in danger and we wait back home to see
If the ones who left to defend our land will return to
you and me.

Days turned into months, then came the news I’d dreaded so,
Informing me of casualties and the need for me to know.
Two men with weary faces reluctantly approached my door
Apologizing for their news and the heavy load they bore.

They spoke of unexpected raids and parties that were lost,
The toll war takes on everyone and lives that pay the cost.
With shoulders broad and voices low, it came as no surprise
When they said he gave his very best through a grateful nation’s eyes.

The day arrived just as he’d said when he’d told of his return,
But it didn’t turn out quite the way he’d imagined, folks would learn.
Regal dignitaries lined the tarmac, standing still
As his wooden box was lowered to the ground near Capitol Hill.

A U.S. flag of stars and stripes lay spread across the pine
And there he was returning like he’d said time after time
He said that he would come back and he did just as he said,
Originally intending to be walking back instead.

Although my heart was ripped apart, he did what he had to do;
Through his sacrificial giving, freedom was bought for me and you.
That bus stop day reminds me of when he turned and saw me cry,
And that the last time that his lips touched mine was, indeed, our last goodbye.
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The Building and the Preacher-Man

A passerby might notice, not inclined to be impressed,
‘Bout the place we few would gather giving it our Sunday best
Boards that once held painted layers, now eroded, passing time,
Akin to lives within it of their lives not always kind

As winter passed, the blackened, lonely stove stood idle there
In summertime with windows raised, we breathed the fresh, clean air
Atop the stool with fingers crooked, a knowledge of three chords
Sat one lone soul from down the road that knew that much-used board

Inside that one room building, in her corner through the years,
We watched her play and watched her cry and shed her share of tears
She did her best to make the group that came together then
Sound like a mighty chorus, managing a lofty grin

A wooden seat with splinters was the place I came to know
Every time proceeding through the door where others gently flowed
Friends and family, few in number, but the love shined ever bright
Where an aged man with shoulders bent proclaimed a Holy Light

Short of breath, he talked and preached about the end so very near,
Told us all to get it right with God before He did appear
Years have passed so ever quickly and I think about that time
When a child grew up among the fragrant honeysuckle vines

The building and the preacher-man are in my childhood’s past,
Destroyed both by seasons, ripe with age that didn’t last
It was a setting far from city life where lightning bugs once glowed
And whippoorwills sounded in the night in that life I used to know
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New Day