SEARCH THIS SITE


Powered by FreeFind

Laudemont Ministries
P.O. Box 369
Hamilton, Illinois 62341 U.S.A.
800-440-4043
laudemont@forecyte.com


Counter Number

Since January 20, 2005
©2001 Shirley Anne Leonard
Microsoft® Clipart

LAUDEMONT MINISTRIES

A Sensible Approach to Christian Truth

POETRY BY SHIRLEY ANNE LEONARD

Legacy

Published in Ancient Paths, Fall 2000, and in Remembering Eden

Remove not the ancient landmarks, which thy fathers have set. — Proverbs 22:28

There was a dignity to life, now lost.
I see it in this Bible, aged and worn,
perused by lantern, windows raw with frost
inside this hut where pioneers were born.

I see it in these stately silent hills,
in azure boundlessness of virgin sky,
in lives and deaths devoid of useless frills,
close to the rugged earth, therein to lie.

Men hewed their timber down and built it up
in rustic homes of solid oaken beams.
They thanked the Lord whene’er they sat to sup
and lived reality sparked full with dreams.

The land that bore them shaped them straight and tall
and etched their faces taut against the West.
It pit them strength for strength, victor take all,
and tried them year by year and test by test.

Into it all, they threw a strong resolve,
a courage born of need, a will of steel,
a oneness with their God quick to dissolve
self-pity weaker souls were apt to feel.

And we, who read their sagas, stand in awe,
our ears besieged by wild electric din,
and yearn to see the world that their eyes saw
where truth and noble purpose reign again.

The Old Barn