Category: Poems

Ray Romine Poems

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On Guard!

“Up and at those problems!
Advance! Be bold! Attack!”
While such advice is very nice,
Why not some other tack?

For my experience tells me,
Before the fight commences,
That, not so slow, my problems know
The latest in defenses.

by Ray Romine Wednesday, April 11, 1951

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On Gossip

All the things my neighbor tells me
Of other neighbors that he’s learned,
Makes me wonder if he spares me
then my back to him is turned.

A guy I work with loves to gossip
About another friend of ours;
Am I, then, in turn, his subject
When it comes to after-hours?

About my wife I even wonder ,
As high-heeled to her Club she goes:
When they rake their husbands over,
Does she tell em all she knows?

So help me, conscience, to remember,
If I gossip of a friend,
The guy to whom I’m talking gathers
I’ll talk about HIM in the end.

And anyway, I should remember:
“I was told”; “I heard”; “They say”–
Harm far more the chap who says them,
Than the subject, any day.

by Ray Romine Saturday, April 24, 1943

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On Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm should be firm enough
To stand against the fortunes of a day,
And throwing off impedimenta, stay
As fresh, untarnished, as its foes are rough.
In spite of every jeer and each rebuff,
Despite the clever things our critics say,
Regardless of the price we heve to pay,
Our zest for life ought be, of all things, tough.

But, long as men delude themselves, and think
That hard work is a virtue unsurpassed,
That labor is its own hard-earned reward,
That long will man’s enthusiasm shrink
Before midday; and by his sweat outclassed
He will die tired, and miserable, and bored.

by Ray Romine Tuesday, March 7, 1944

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On Discontent

When I grow weary waiting for those things
Which nature “owes” me just for being here;
When I am out of sorts with what earth brings
My way, then I am sure I do not gear
To cosmic cycles. The moon, the sun’s broad sweep,
And each shape in the interstellar sea
Have schedules each is duty-bound to keep:
How bother with an out-of-step like me?

But, stretching patient hands to winter’s sky,
A tree, ignored completely up to now,
Communicating silently, asks why
A man expects the universe to bow
To him. A tree’s philosophy is plain:
Endure and wait six months to live again!

by Ray Romine Friday, February 12, 1954