My Garden

The world is sadly sick, they say,
And plagued by woe and pain.
But look! How looms my garden gay,
With blooms in golden reign!
With lyric music in the air,
Of joy fulfilled in song,
I can't believe that anywhere
Is hate and harm and wrong.

A paradise my garden is,
And there my day is spent;
A steep myself in sunny bliss,
Incredibly content.
Feeling that I am truly part
Of peace so rapt and still,
There's not a care within my heart . . .
How can the world be ill?

Aye, though the land be sick they say,
And named unto pain,
My garden never was so gay,
So innocent, so sane.
My roses mock at misery,
My thrushes vie in song . . .
When only beauty I can see,
How can the world be wrong?

More poems by Robert Service

Benjamin Franklin

Franklin fathered bastards fourteen, / (So I read in the New Yorker);

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Fisherfolk

I like to look at fishermen / And often times I wish

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My Calendar

From off my calendar today / A leaf I tear;

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My Coffin

Deeming that I was due to die / I framed myself a coffin;

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