Love That Became Forever

Love me once, love me twice,
Love me once again.
There were times I wasn’t nice
But you loved me once again

T’was through your love
I learned to love,
A compassion and caring
That came from above.

Not a love that was deserved.
That could never be.
And yet you reserved
Your heart for me.

Missteps and straying
About the way,
Lies and deceptions,
Still led to the day

When my love for you
Was all there was
Because
That’s what loved once, twice, does.

Through all the times
I thought I was clever, you refusing me never
As learning to love from you and above
You became my adoration forever.

by E. Marshall Evans

You Must Not Speak

by E. Marshall Evans

 

Kum-bay-yah,

It’s peace we seek.

Let’s all get along.

You must not speak.

 

Shut your mouth

And close your beak,

They don’t want to hear it,

You must not speak.

 

The world’s on fire.

Though relief we seek,

The answers are hid.

You must not speak.

 

Souls are at risk

Both brave and meek,

Yet PC rules.

You must not speak.

 

Each one is finding

His own ”unique”

On the road to hell

Still you must not speak.

 

But truth will out

And reach its peak

For the rocks will cry out

And of God they’ll speak.

 

For God is truth

Even to the weak.

So lest the rocks cry out

We all must speak.

 

He’s the Living God,

The One we seek.

We must cry out,

We all must speak.

Night Too Soon

Darkness of the day surrounds me

Too soon the daylight gone

As the clock moves on relentlessly

Until night gives way to dawn.

Each morn I plan to take control

Inscribe events to come

But life seems to get in the way

Taking up time and then some.

Then drops the sun into the azure blue lake

Setting the night ink free

To bring the cover of dark again

Leaving the world to God and me.

by E. Marshall Evans

The Waves – May 1, 2014

Strolling along Myrtle Beach

Collecting shells in the sand

The waves become hypnotic

And the mood moves into grand.

So many thoughts and memories

Come rushing back with the waves

Thoughts that flood and can’t be stopped,

Some get panned, but some are raves.

Again and again

They flow in and out

Life reliving every decision

Life reliving every doubt.

Then sanity reasserts

For the mind knows what it knows

And hypnosis grinds to a halt

With the sand between my toes.

By E. Marshall Evans

Never Alone – May 1, 2014 (National Day of Prayer)

When you find yourself at the end of your rope,

Tie a knot, hang on, and don’t give up hope.

When nothing’s right, and you’re a knotted mass

Take a breath, this too shall pass.

When all the world seems on your shoulders,

The rocks you trip over seem like boulders,

When you’re hope is dropping like a falling stone,

Take heart, take faith, you’re not alone.

In the celestial scheme of things that go right

At end of every day is finally a night

That dawns to a new day with the rising of the sun

When another chance, a new time is begun.

When solutions seem lost through a glass too dark

And what’s wrong is coming fast and too stark

Stop, drop, kneel and pray to the One

Who has the answers, God’s only Son.

This is His world, the one He made

He won’t allow His own to fade.

No need to stand lost and alone out there.

Talk to God or you haven’t a prayer.

By E. Marshall Evans

Running Away From Mariposa – April 30, 2014

Standing in the meadow

Looking up at old Half Dome

Watching deer meandering

Across the front porch of their home.

So many years ago

When the Indians still were there

And the great Winona redwood

Could be driven through if you dare

The times were so much simpler

And the living was so free

When the life of a little boy

Was all that it could be.

Seems I’ve spent a lifetime

Looking for a better way to be

When Mariposa was just waiting

For me to come back and be me.

Indeed I’ve spent most of my life,

A lifetime running away

Trying to be what I wasn’t,

A mask and a part to play.

Trying to be this one and that one

Running away from seeds that were sown

Breaking deals and breaking hearts

Even at last my own.

So I offer this advice

To those whose heart is achin’,

Go right on and just be yourself,

Everyone else is taken.

by E. Marshall Evans

 

Silence From the Commander in Chief – April 29, 2014

The suggestion for a poem for this 29th day of April in the NaPoWriMo Poem A Day Exercise for April is to write a poem from a news story.  This comes from a news story published about an incident that took place five years ago.  It still burns.

Silence From the Commander in Chief

(In honor of U.S. Army Private William “Andy” Long, 25Jun85-1Jun09, by Pastor Ed Evans, MGySgt., USMC (Ret.)

On June 1, 2009, outside a Little Rock, Ark., Army Recruiting Station, a newly graduated recruit soldier, Private William A. Long, was shot to death on his home ground, unarmed, by a Muslim terrorist.  Pvt. Long was buried in his home of Conway, Ark., on June 8, 2009, still lacking any public  comment about his death from his Commander in Chief, President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.

He was standing outside with a buddy

Getting a breath of air,

Just graduated boot camp

It just doesn’t seem fair.

No word would come from his Commander in Chief.

But while he was home on leave

He came to tell each friend

What military life was like

Not knowing it soon would end.

No word would come from his Commander in Chief.

But lurking nearby was an American

Who had listened to the Islamic siren song

And taking aim in stealth

Stole the life of Private William A. Long.

No word would come from his Commander in Chief.

Not since the tragedy of 9-1-1

Had there been an attack on American ground

But this man died quietly for his country that day

As if his government didn’t know he was around.

No word would come from his Commander in Chief.

The President of the United States who only days before

Raged in the media when an abortionist was shot

Said not a word about the death of one of his soldiers,

They just offered him a burial plot.

No word would come from his Commander in Chief.

Now Pvt. Long stands with the angels

That life that loved his country passed silently by.

He stands, and he waits, and he wonders

Why

No word would come from his Commander in Chief.

 

Birthday Thoughts 2014

April 29th I turned 73

Something I never thought I’d be

A gift from God to me

So much to look back and see.

So very many passing friends

Support and loyalty that tends

To build golden memory that bends

A life toward gracious good as it ends.

Still so many years ahead

Lived in homage to those who led

In heroic ways with lives that said

Feed as you’ve been fed.

It’s always been God, Country, and Corps

That my decisive life was for

Protecting my loved ones from war,

That’s all there is, there ain’t no more.

by E. Marshall Evans

A Life With Background Music – April 28, 2014

“Waltz Across Texas With Me”

Comes violining through my mind.

I may be the only one in the world

With background music of that kind.

Ever since I was a little shaver

The background music’s been there

But when I mention it to others

They just raise an eyebrow and stare.

It’s not like I’m looking for it

It just melodies in unbidden

A secret source, a covert concert,

The rhyme and the reason are hidden.

Sometimes it was kind of funny

From times now past and gone

For in battle it was the William Tell Overture

Exciting me, urging me on.

The Colonel Bogey March

And Richard Wagner’s War Horses,

The music always appropriate

And I never wondered the sources.

But mostly these days the music has changed

And I’m hearing a lot of hymns.

This old machine is getting older

And I’m running on the rims.

I thank God for the background music

That lifts me above the herds.

So if you hear a humming sound,

Relax, I just forgot the words.

by E. Marshall Evans

Ridin’ On Alone – April 27, 2014

Ridin’ On Alone

Ridin’ down into the canyon

Looking for some strays

I chanced to think about

The passing of the days.

Been chasing after cattle

Seems a mighty long time

And all those days I ain’t been able

To save so much as a dime.

Never thought I’d get rich

Hiring out with herds

But cowboyin’ and old age

Seems really for the birds.

My backside and that old saddle

Have formed a kind of warp and woof

So the leather’s highly polished

And now there’s snow upon my roof.

When I was a young stud

With a bellyful of fire

Living day to day was okay

And riding out for hire.

But now the cows are contankerous

And cow ponies ain’t so smart

So I’ve started in a-wishing

I had a gal to share my heart.

There was a gal in El Paso

With long and yellow hair

But that was a long time ago.

She’s no longer there.

I remember what it was like to love

Then left alone to ache

Lonely hours in the saddle

Every memory a heartbreak.

All those years riding the range

I’ve had some time to think

Of the difference ‘tween Hereford hides

And skin so soft and pink.

But now time and youth are gone

Left back there in the colorful past

Old horse and I are all that’s left

Alone on the range as long as we last.

by E. Marshall Evans