Category: Poems

Ray Romine Poems

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Hard-to-please

All bright Octobers pale beside this one.
And yet, because the weather didn’t stay
Forever, “Lord!” he cries, “A lousy day!”
And this the first of rain we’ve seen for weeks!
The farmer looks into the skies, and what he seeks
Is there: he’s glad. Perhaps the man who said
“You cannot please them all,” had quite a head.

If man could run the works, he’d ride rough-shod
To trample all the world, and back-talk God!

by Ray Romine Thursday, October 17, 1946

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Hard Way

As we plunge into what we abhor,
We have not learned our lesson yet, for,
With this newer armed tilt
We’re prepared to the hilt
For a five-or-ten-years-ago war!

by Ray Romine Monday, July 10, 1950

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Hard To Take

Like Mother’s dopes, which, she had hopes,
Would fire a sluggish liver,
You’ll find advice is only nice
As it affects the giver.

by Ray Romine Saturday, October 5, 1946

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Hard Nut

Pour invective loud and long;
With, facts and logic rinse me.
But though you’re right and I am wrong ,
I DARE you to convince me.

by Ray Romine Saturday, January 31, 1953

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Harbinger

There is something about a red-bud tree
That gets down deep inside of me.
It scatters, when soft new winds mill,
Its two-tone pink across the hill;
A traffic-cop upon a spree,
Stopping every passing bee;
Or neon sign, effective, clear,
Flashing madly “Spring is Here”–
(Spring settles, sighs, and tarries where
Grow red-bud garlands for her hair.)

by Ray Romine Wednesday, April 18, 1951

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Happy Ending

Remember that spot by the garden seat,
And the flagstone path that led our feet
There, while the flowers, scented musk,
Whitely smiled in the gathered dusk?
Recall how we wondered what they played
When the crickets filed their serenade?
But most vivid of all to me of then
Is my sweetest impression of you, for when
Your sweetheart made an unholy mess
Of his nervous proposal, you answered Yes!

by Ray Romine Tuesday, April 4, 1950