Patience Strong

Brenda Bryant

HEADS OR TAILS
http://headsortailshome.blogspot.com/2010/02/sign-in-tuesday-february-16.html

'LIGHT AND DARK'

PATIENCE STRONG

I looked out of the window and I thought of Patience Strong,

As I gazed up at this sunny-cloudy sky.

Yes, I thought of Patience Strong and the verses that she wrote

In the dim and distant days of time gone by.

She wrote her little verses to inspire and give some hope

To readers needing solace at that time,

And she wrote her little homilies in her own simplistic way

And she wrote them all in easy-flowing rhyme.

And this-morning's stormy sky seemed to call for Patience Strong

To weave her old-time magic once again,

To say something based on the dark of clouds and the bright light of the sun

And the finite nature of a shower of rain.

And so I thought 'Why don't I try a little Patience Strong;

And write a poem based on clouds above?'

So here it is, my homily to cheer your wretched lives

And fill them with the poetry of love.

*

The day has dawned and it is time to rise up from your bed!

Look up and see the sun and clouds that mingle overhead.

Remember every day must bring some grey, some ebb and flow.

Your clouds may speak of gentle rain or of icy winds that blow.

But the sun is always shining, even though it can't be seen;

And if you watch intently, there are sunbeams in between.

The clouds are transient, you know, and they will fade away,

But the sun is always there for you, however dark your day.

*

Patience Strong

Patience Strong's poems were first published in the Daily Mirror in August 1935 under the heading The Quiet Corner, and subsequently in its sister paper, the Sunday Pictorial (later to become the Sunday Mirror). They also appeared weekly for more than 35 years in Woman's Own,

My Memories
By the Real Patience Strong.
On the road that all must tread
You have traveled on ahead
Out into the morning light
Out of reach and out of sight
But never far away
For every night and every day
On the wings of memory
Something brings you back to me
Some simple and familiar thing
That sets my heart remembering.

*

A poem of mine written in the same period here:

http://rinklyrimes.blogspot.com/2009/01/278a-affray.html