INCARNATION.
Though part and parcel of the past
The future is an unknown book—
Though writing for eternity,
I dare not on its pages look.
My past is dead, and buried too.
In grave of Hope it lies full deep;
It resurrected ne’er shall be,
It is a nightmare of my sleep.
Will life’s fair morning never come?
I wait for it impatiently.
And Death’s long sleep I fain would break
With all its gruesome mystery.
I pray to go forever on,
Retracing ne’er earth’s steps again.
Incarnate once, and only once,
I would not live on earth again.
REINCARNATION.
I feel that I have lived before,
That I shall live again.
Shall yet have my desires fulfilled,
Although I know not when.
If now is all there is of life,
What use to me was birth?
Not one desire has been fulfilled,
Since first I came to earth.
There is a realm not yet explored,
I feel it in my soul,
I’ll struggle on (though oft I fail)
To reach that blissful goal.
Full oft I catch a glimpse of past.
Old mem’ries round me throng.
The mem’ries of a long gone past.—
Again I hear a song
That I once heard in previous life,
And it to me doth seem
As though an angel sang the song;
My life his chosen theme.
The notes seem now so strange and weird.
I’ve heard them though, before;
In former life the music sweet
Came from celestial shore.
A vague, vague dream of other lives
Doth often with me stay;
But when I try to hold the dream,
It vanishes straightway.
My present life is incomplete.
A fragment is of past.
I shall take up the threads again,
And in Life’s loom them cast.
The “Great First Cause” has charge of
The lives that have been mine.
The web that’s woven on Life’s loom
In time becomes divine.
Absorbed in God I soon shall be.
E’en now I feel Love’s kiss.
Life’s struggles soon will ended be
In everlasting bliss.
What was my life in that dim past?
It matters not to me.
My Karma of the past will be
Absorbed in Deity.
LIFE’S BURDEN.
Each one hath some burden to carry,
Each one hath some sorrow or woe.
But hearts that are cheerful, and willing,
Can every trouble o’erthrow.
We will not complain, but have courage
To bear every cross, and all pain;
For burdens when carried with patience
Are blessings which we may attain.
Our hopes may be bright in the morning,
But fade, as the day grows apace;
Though clouds may obscure all Life’s evening,
With patience these clouds we must face.
Behind every cloud is some sunshine,
Behind every grief is some mirth.
Behind every tear there is laughter,
Though tears came first at our birth.
TO MOUNT SIERRA.
Thou grand old granite mountain
Canst tell me what thy age?
What secrets art thou holding
Within thy heart O sage.
Couldst man find out by delving
Deep in thy stony breast,
How long thou hast been rearing
On high, thy hoary crest.
Hadst thou e’er a beginning?
Wilt thou in death e’er fall?
Canst thou these questions answer?
On thee I humbly call.
Is life, within thy bosom?
Or art thou cold and dead?
Thou standest in thy myst’ry
No tears of misery shed.
Thy heart, thy life is granite,
Thou carest not for woe.
If tear thou ever sheddest
It turns to ice and snow.
But why seek I thy secrets,
Thou haughty mountain king?
Thou wilt not give me answer,
No knowledge to me bring.—
The wind doth give me answer
That thou wast born of fire.
Thou claimest Earth as mother,
Jehovah is thy sire.
Farewell O Mount Sierra!
I leave thee to thy rest.
But, man will wrench thy secrets
In future from thy breast.