Selections from Trella Romine's library at Terradise Nature Center
Ray Romine Poems
The yearning trees stretch up their leafy hands
To grasp at clouds just always out of reach.
And so with man, who never understands
So many lessons that the years could teach.
His vision , when he turns him toward the skies,
Is clouded by the money in his eyes.
by Ray Romine Tuesday, July 5, 1949
In dread, and in anxiety,
In ragged nerve ends’ hopping,
The super-bombs exact a toll
Without one’s ever dropping.
A lot of good home remedies
Our forbears loved and treasured;
But laughter was a medicine
Whose worth cannot be measured
by Ray Romine Tuesday, December 4, 1951
More muscles are required to frown:
Ask any grinning circus clown
With whose wife let us sympathize–
Clowns frown at home for exfercise.
or:
It is a fact to which I’m wise–
I’m frowning for the exercise!
by Ray Romine Thursday, January 28, 1954
Who laushs at the show-off
Who thinks he has scored,
Encourages something
Far better ignored!
by Ray Romine Tuesday, October 15, 1946
Mother, who’s cooking, opines small boys
Are two-thirds appetite and one-third noise;
But father, who’s trying to get immersed
In the paper, says she has it reversed.
by Ray Romine Tuesday, February 5, 1952
To him who cries “What Next?” I say
Despair not, but believe
That Fate, who loves so well to play,
Has something up her sleeve!
Let’s carry on, old boy, shall we–
In customary fashion,
Sure that Fate will guarantee
Each his normal ration.
It seems it isn’t what we get,
Nor if we hang in tatters:
It’s HOW we take what we have met
That matters.
by Ray Romine Tuesday, January 29, 1952
The fantasies of childhood
Are almost commonplace
Beside the stern “realities”
That later take their place.
The differences between the two
Are not pronounced, save one:
The latter are inspired by fear–
And childhood’s, by fun.
by Ray Romine Tuesday, January 2, 1951
Three boys with bait and fishing lines
Watch corks intently. One opines,
“I ‘ve got a whale–look out, you guys!”
“I’ve hooked a box,” the second cries.
The third, “I ‘ve caught a rubber boot!”
(Each lad has snagged the self-same root.)
I have my yardstick; so have you:
We measure with our point of view.
by Ray Romine Wednesday, March 25, 1953
“Shut that window–pull that shade:
Of ventilation I’m afraid;
Turn off that electric fan,
Start the furnace up again.
Let there be no dearth of heat.,
To make each day for me complete.
I hate fresh air and I hate cold–
On the heat, though, I am sold.
“Turn that radiator on,
Save on coal when I am gone.
Shut that skylight overhead:
Open it when I am dead.
Knit my sweater tough and strong;
Make it warm and close and long.
Hand me down my ear-muffs, too–
No telling WHAT July will do?
“On all the sports I’ve put the bans:
I like the games but not the FANS.
I gag at sight or swimming pools;
Smoke any cigarette but -KOOLS.
Take away those ice-cream cones-They
further chill my freezing bones.
Fry, if you must, in your own sweat:
I’ve never been too hot, as yet.
“The Janitors are friends of mine:
They keep it 90 all the time;
Carriers crab that they can’t work,
But what’s a CARRIER? I’m a CLERK!
They may not like my kind of clime,
But they’ll get used to it in time.
Doctor’s orders, kindly fade:
Fresh-air-fiends are BORN, not made!
“Tons of coal are thrown, each day,
(Because I can’t keep warm), away–
Let the others swelter, please,
As long as I don’t have to freeze.
Song I very much admire:
‘I Want to Set the World on Fire. ‘
But that, I think, is quite all right–
The world is wrong, and I am right.”
EPILOGUE:
Well, if the heat decides to kill us
I hope to Heck it STARTS WITH WILLIS!
And when of Hell he gets a taste, ,
I hope he’s WARM–the PANTY-WAIST!!
by Ray Romine Saturday, June 26, 1943
Who waves while passing in his car
I possibly could place
If he would move that languid hand
From out in front of face.
by Ray Romine Monday, October 30, 1950