Every once in a while I come across a little tid bit that I can’t resist passing along. Please bear with me. Albert Pike was one of America’s great philosophical thinkers of the nineteenth century. He was a general in the civil war and is a much venerated leader of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. He was as you can see below, a pretty darned good poet, too. Enjoy!!!!
EVERY YEAR
By Albert Pike
Life is a count of losses,
Every year;
Lost springs with sobs replying,
Unto weary autumn’s sighing,
While those we love are dying,
Every year.
The days have less of gladness,
Every year;
The nights more weight of sadness
Every year.
Fair springs no longer charm us,
The winds and weather harm us,
The threats of death alarm us,
Every year.
There come new care and sorrows,
Every year;
Dark days and darker morrows,
Every year.
The ghosts of dead hopes haunt us,
The ghosts of changed friends taunt us,
And disappointments daunt us,
Every year.
To the past go more dead faces,
Every year;
As the loved leave vacant places,
Every year;
Everywhere the sad eyes meet us,
In the evening’s dusk they greet us,
And to come to them entreat us,
Every year.
“You are growing old,” they tell us,
Every year;
“You are more alone,” they tell us,
Every year;
“You can win no more affection;
“You have only recollection,
“Deeper sorrow and dejection,
Every year.”
The shores of life are shifting,
Every year;
And we are seaward drifting,
Every year;
Old places, changing, fret us,
The living more forget us,
There are fewer to regret us,
Every year.