Rich's Poetry Blog

Today, I unexpectedly felt like writing a poem about war.  Perhaps more specifically, I wrote it about those left behind while war calls others away. I was inspired by watching Testament of Youth, which was a hugely popular memoir written after WWI based on events during that period. I'm not sure what else to say about it, but I hope it conveys an emotion some have felt, expresses something in poetry they would liked to have said, or simply sits empathetically along side them in their remembrance and grief. This Lonely Wood This lonely wood was quiet once. Its voice was still and sweet, As you and I with friends along Did revel, play, and meet. We did not hear its salient songs Aloft on springtime wind, Our cachinnating cries too loud – Those cries I’d now rescind. If I had heard the message then Would I have let you leave? Without a kiss, a word, a touch The things the war has reaved? But time swept through this lonely wood, A summer call ...

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine looked over at me and I looked back at him with my usual big smile and eyes filled with stars, and he told me he kept expecting that someday my response will fade or change.  The answer is I hope it never does.  I wrote this poem to be pseudo-conversational, though much of the writing is more poetic than truly conversational. The first half represents what my friend could be thinking, while the latter half represents my feelings on the topic of individual worth. (P.S. This is interestingly a subject I struggle with in myself as well, and I don't mean to be hypocritical. It's just easiest for me to see worth in the brilliant beings around me.) From Fountains of Eternity “When will eyes grow dim?” you think. You glance, “Was that a duller blink?” “Is this the fated moment now – When ones I love turn down their brow And, disenchanted, turn away, Succumbing under time’s decay Which opened wide my soul’s...

I was going through a missionary journal today to find information on someone's baptism. My wife picked up the journal and found this poem I wrote while serving a mission in the Ukraine in April 1993. I was 19 at the time. The Final Tear Long ago, I dreamed a dream I thought I knew it all - it seemed. The road had been too hard, too long. And why my pains should I prolong? "I'll leave this path of pain and fear, and I will shed my final tear!" The laws, the labor too much to bear I left my friends, my home, and cares. To travel down a different path where life was good and I could laugh - No rules or laws to bind me down, And I rejoiced in what I'd "found". Time passed and life, it spiraled on With evenings' end and each new dawn. But somehow midst the breaking day, I found that on my cheek there lay A tear for days gone by, long past; The joys that I once knew now ash. That floats upon the lofty breeze Blown too and...

I wrote this very quickly after coming into work last Tuesday. I took a picture of the light that inspired it as well: Morning Light   The sunlight gleaming through the trees, sets my mind upon its knees To thank the Savior of mankind, for light that heals the lost and blind. by Rich Bailey

I wrote this little haiku as I drove to work this morning. Tuesday Love My heart turns toward home And my bowels spring you-ward. All this on Tuesday

Trevor wrote this one yesterday evening while listening to talks in our church's General Conference, when we hear leaders speak on a variety of topics.  I am glad he was inspired to write about fear and love. Fear As we fear, our spirits fall. Fear is the power which influences all. Fear of who we are and what we shall do; With fear in our hearts, chaos ensues. But fear is shattered when love is near, Because "Perfect love casteth out fear...." (1 John 4:18) Fear shall no longer inside us reign, When we allow love within to remain. by Trevor Bailey Oct. 3, 2015