I know those strains

I know those strains you’re whistling now
  You hear the music too—
Seductive little madrigals—
  O yes, I’m sure you do.

You talk to me about the starlings
  I say it’s chickadees.
Let’s both of us debate the birds
  And never mind the bees—

The bee that flies melodiously
  To kiss the neighbor’s flower;
The neighbor’s hummingbird that sips
  The nectar from the bower.

We both of us know that refrain.
  Our better angels wring
Their hands all while we hum the tunes
  Those other angels sing.

I know those strains
by me, Patrick Gillespie April Fools 2024

But then…

But then, at times, the way the snow
Topples the birches crossways,
The way they bar me going further
Makes me think, as always,

That I should cut them down, and yet
I’ll just as soon decide:
The beauty of their argument
Asks not to be denied.

With such humility, they stoop;
I stoop a little too;
And theirs the generosity—
They always let me through.

February 1 2024
by me, Patrick Gillespie

• Once one starts writing these— No wonder Emily wrote some 1800 ballad hymns. This poem is for the birches in my back yard. I’ll take a picture of them.

The Devil Knows

The devil knows how to tell a lie.
He’ll con the foolish through and through
Impeccably dressed in a coat and tie.

Nobody hears the poor man’s cry
And anyhow what can you do?—
The devil knows how to tell a lie.

He’ll tell you (if you ask him why):
‘I’d not be here, if it weren’t true,
Impeccably dressed in a coat and tie.’

And though each day a thousand die
Success is for the chosen few.
The devil knows how to tell a lie.

I bet you think you’d never try
But he knows well you’d like it too—
Impeccably dressed in a coat and tie.

The world is burning by and by
But what he does is done for you.
The devil knows how to tell a lie
Impeccably dressed in a coat and tie.

by me
June 2 2020