BOOKLET BETWEEN THE DAYS
1. Come Back In Tears
(Original Poem “Echo” by Christina Georgina Rossetti)
O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That´s opening
Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
As sunlight on a stream; Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again though cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low
As long ago
2. A Happy Man
(by Edwin Arlington Robinson)
When these graven lines you see,
Traveller, do not pity me;
Though I be among the dead,
Let no mournful word be said.
Children that I leave behind,
And their children, all were kind;
Near to them and to my wife,
I was happy all my life.
My three sons I married right,
And their sons I rocked at night;
Death nor sorrow never brought
Cause for one unhappy thought.
Now, and with no need of tears,
Here they leave me, full of years,--
Leave me to my quiet rest
In the region of the blest.
3. Richard Cory
(by Edwin Arlington Robinson)
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
4. The Long Small Room
(by Edward Thomas)
The long small room that showed willows in the west
Narrowed up to the end the fireplace filled,
Although not wide. I liked it. No one guessed
What need or accident made them so build.
Only the moon, the mouse, and the sparrow peeped
In from the ivy round the casement thick.
Of all they saw and heard there they shall keep
The tale for the old ivy and older brick.
When I look back I am like moon, sparrow, and mouse
That witnessed what they could never understand
(Or alter or prevent in the dark house.
One thing remains the same--this is my right hand)
Crawling crab-like over the clean white page,
Resting awhile each morning on the pillow,
(Then once more starting to crawl on towards age.
The hundred last leaves stream upon the willow.)
5. I’m Good – I’m Bad
(by Asmus Ring)
I’m good, I’m bad
I’m selfish when I’m helpful
I’m happy and I’m sad
Forgiving and resentful.
I’m generous and jealous
I’m free and I’m a slave
A coward, cool and callous
I am desolate and brave.
I am living. I am dying.
I am happy and I’m sad,
Seeking wisdom, while I’m lying
I am good. I am bad.
I’m lost. I’m found.
I’m smiling and I’m crying.
My feet won’t touch the ground,
I’m failing while I’m trying.
I’m flying, I’m falling,
Pathetic and absurd.
I’m called for and I’m calling:
I’m hurt. And I can hurt.
I am living. I am dying…
I’m courageous and contagious,
I’m the cure and I’m a curse,
Made of bone, blood and intestine
For the better or the worse…
6. The Current
(“A Myth” by Charles Kingsley)
A floating, a floating
Across the sleeping sea,
All night I heard a singing bird
Upon the topmast tree.
“Oh, came you from the isles of Greece
Or from the banks of Seine;
Or off some tree in forests free,
Which fringe the western main?”
“I came not off the old world
Nor yet from off the new—
But I am one of the birds of God
Which sing the whole night through.”
“Oh, sing and wake the dawning—
Oh, whistle for the wind;
The night is long, the current strong,
My boat it lags behind.”
“The current sweeps the old world,
The current sweeps the new;
The wind will blow, the dawn will glow,
Ere thou hast sail’d them through.”
7. Feet o' Jesus
(by Langston Hughes)
At the feet o' Jesus,
Sorrow like a sea.
Lordy, let yo' mercy
Come driftin' down on me.
At the feet o' Jesus
At yo' feet I stand.
O, ma little Jesus,
Please reach out yo' hand.
1. Come Back In Tears
(Original Poem “Echo” by Christina Georgina Rossetti)
O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
Where thirsting longing eyes
Watch the slow door
That´s opening
Come to me in the silence of the night;
Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
As sunlight on a stream; Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
Yet come to me in dreams, that I may live
My very life again though cold in death:
Come back to me in dreams, that I may give
Pulse for pulse, breath for breath:
Speak low, lean low
As long ago
2. A Happy Man
(by Edwin Arlington Robinson)
When these graven lines you see,
Traveller, do not pity me;
Though I be among the dead,
Let no mournful word be said.
Children that I leave behind,
And their children, all were kind;
Near to them and to my wife,
I was happy all my life.
My three sons I married right,
And their sons I rocked at night;
Death nor sorrow never brought
Cause for one unhappy thought.
Now, and with no need of tears,
Here they leave me, full of years,--
Leave me to my quiet rest
In the region of the blest.
3. Richard Cory
(by Edwin Arlington Robinson)
Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored, and imperially slim.
And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
'Good-morning,' and he glittered when he walked.
And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.
So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.
4. The Long Small Room
(by Edward Thomas)
The long small room that showed willows in the west
Narrowed up to the end the fireplace filled,
Although not wide. I liked it. No one guessed
What need or accident made them so build.
Only the moon, the mouse, and the sparrow peeped
In from the ivy round the casement thick.
Of all they saw and heard there they shall keep
The tale for the old ivy and older brick.
When I look back I am like moon, sparrow, and mouse
That witnessed what they could never understand
(Or alter or prevent in the dark house.
One thing remains the same--this is my right hand)
Crawling crab-like over the clean white page,
Resting awhile each morning on the pillow,
(Then once more starting to crawl on towards age.
The hundred last leaves stream upon the willow.)
5. I’m Good – I’m Bad
(by Asmus Ring)
I’m good, I’m bad
I’m selfish when I’m helpful
I’m happy and I’m sad
Forgiving and resentful.
I’m generous and jealous
I’m free and I’m a slave
A coward, cool and callous
I am desolate and brave.
I am living. I am dying.
I am happy and I’m sad,
Seeking wisdom, while I’m lying
I am good. I am bad.
I’m lost. I’m found.
I’m smiling and I’m crying.
My feet won’t touch the ground,
I’m failing while I’m trying.
I’m flying, I’m falling,
Pathetic and absurd.
I’m called for and I’m calling:
I’m hurt. And I can hurt.
I am living. I am dying…
I’m courageous and contagious,
I’m the cure and I’m a curse,
Made of bone, blood and intestine
For the better or the worse…
6. The Current
(“A Myth” by Charles Kingsley)
A floating, a floating
Across the sleeping sea,
All night I heard a singing bird
Upon the topmast tree.
“Oh, came you from the isles of Greece
Or from the banks of Seine;
Or off some tree in forests free,
Which fringe the western main?”
“I came not off the old world
Nor yet from off the new—
But I am one of the birds of God
Which sing the whole night through.”
“Oh, sing and wake the dawning—
Oh, whistle for the wind;
The night is long, the current strong,
My boat it lags behind.”
“The current sweeps the old world,
The current sweeps the new;
The wind will blow, the dawn will glow,
Ere thou hast sail’d them through.”
7. Feet o' Jesus
(by Langston Hughes)
At the feet o' Jesus,
Sorrow like a sea.
Lordy, let yo' mercy
Come driftin' down on me.
At the feet o' Jesus
At yo' feet I stand.
O, ma little Jesus,
Please reach out yo' hand.
