Priorities, keep the straight!

Many years ago, my grandmother cut this poem out of a newspaper, made a notation,"how true," in the side column, sent it to her cousin, and eventually got it back.  Somehow it came into my possession.  I've treasured it.  My grandmother DID have her priorities straight in life when I knew her.  She was a lot of fun and admired by many friends.

 

Of Things That Are

    Lovely and Fleeting

 

The dust on the piano keeps better

    than the flashing

Of loveliness, keeps better than

    the clean slant of wings

Across the cool garden, where the

    honeysuckle berries

Call the brown song sparrow that

    balances and sings.

 

The undone ironing keeps better

    than the beauty

Of the star-hung plum tree in

    the drying yard,

And the undarned socks will out-

    last the radiance

Of a sunset's glory to its last

    bright shard.

 

The tarnish on the spoons keeps

    better than the mischief

In a wee girl's eyes or the sun-

    light on her hair,

And the stacked supper dishes will

    long outlast the clinging

Of a small boy's arms and his little

    whispered prayer.

 

Ah, life is so short and the earth

    is so beautiful,

And boys and girls are children for

    such a little while--

So we run n the orchard and look

    for the four-leafed clovers,

And we know a spotless house isn't

    worth a baby's smile.

 

By Leona Ames Hill