Moko, the Educated Ape is here,The pet of vaudeville, so the posters say,And every night the gaping people payTo see him in his panoply appear;To see him pad his paunch with dainty cheer,Puff his perfecto, swill champagne, and swayJust like a gentleman, yet all in play,Then bow himself off stage with brutish leer. And as […]

I I took the clock down from the shelf;“At eight,” said I, “I shoot myself.”It lacked a MINUTE of the hour,And as I waited all a-cower,A skinful of black, boding pain,Bits of my life came back again. . . . “Mother, there’s nothing more to eat — Why don’t you go out on the street? […]

I know a mountain thrilling to the stars,Peerless and pure, and pinnacled with snow;Glimpsing the golden dawn o’er coral bars,Flaunting the vanisht sunset’s garnet glow;Proudly patrician, passionless, serene;Soaring in silvered steeps where cloud-surfs break;Virgin and vestal — Oh, a very Queen!And at her feet there dreams a quiet lake. My lake adores my mountain — […]

Jack would laugh an’ joke all day;Never saw a lad so gay;Singin’ like a medder lark,Loaded to the Plimsoll markWith God’s sunshine was that boy;Had a strangle-holt on Joy.Held his head ‘way up in air,Left no callin’ cards on Care;Breezy, buoyant, brave and true;Sent his sunshine out to you;Cheerfulest when clouds was black —Happy Jack! […]

Be honest, kindly, simple, true; Seek good in all, scorn but pretence; Whatever sorrow come to you, Believe in Life’s Beneficence! The World’s all right; serene I sit,And cease to puzzle over it.There’s much that’s mighty strange, no doubt;But Nature knows what she’s about;And in a million years or soWe’ll know more than to-day we […]

Just think! some night the stars will gleamUpon a cold, grey stone,And trace a name with silver beam,And lo! ’twill be your own. That night is speeding on to greetYour epitaphic rhyme.Your life is but a little beatWithin the heart of Time. A little gain, a little pain,A laugh, lest you may moan;A little blame, […]

It’s mighty lonesome-like and drear.Above the Wild the moon rides high,And shows up sharp and needle-clearThe emptiness of earth and sky;No happy homes with love a-glow;No Santa Claus to make believe:Just snow and snow, and then more snow;It’s Christmas Eve, it’s Christmas Eve. And here am I where all things end,And Undesirables are hurled;A poor […]

Come out, O Little Moccasins, and frolic on the snow!Come out, O tiny beaded feet, and twinkle in the light!I’ll play the old Red River reel, you used to love it so:Awake, O Little Moccasins, and dance for me to-night! Your hair was all a gleamy gold, your eyes a corn-flower blue;Your cheeks were pink […]

The Wanderlust has lured me to the seven lonely seas,Has dumped me on the tailing-piles of dearth;The Wanderlust has haled me from the morris chairs of ease,Has hurled me to the ends of all the earth.How bitterly I’ve cursed it, oh, the Painted Desert knows,The wraithlike heights that hug the pallid plain,The all-but-fluid silence, — […]

“And when I come to die,” he said,“Ye shall not lay me out in state,Nor leave your laurels at my head,Nor cause your men of speech orate;No monument your gift shall be,No column in the Hall of Fame;But just this line ye grave for me:‘He played the game.’” So when his glorious task was done,It […]

Light up your pipe again, old chum, and sit awhile with me;I’ve got to watch the bannock bake — how restful is the air!You’d little think that we were somewhere north of Sixty-three,Though where I don’t exactly know, and don’t precisely care.The man-size mountains palisade us round on every side;The river is a-flop with fish, […]

The clover was in blossom, an’ the year was at the June,When Flap-jack Billy hit the town, likewise O’Flynn’s saloon.The frost was on the fodder an’ the wind was growin’ keen,When Billy got to seein’ snakes in Sullivan’s shebeen. Then in meandered Deep-hole Dan, once comrade of the cup:“Oh Billy, for the love of Mike, […]

There will be a singing in your heart,There will be a rapture in your eyes;You will be a woman set apart,You will be so wonderful and wise.You will sleep, and when from dreams you start,As of one that wakes in Paradise,There will be a singing in your heart,There will be a rapture in your eyes. […]

When Chewed-ear Jenkins got hitched up to Guinneyveer McGee,His flowin’ locks, ye recollect, wuz frivolous an’ free;But in old Hymen’s jack-pot, it’s a most amazin’ thing,Them flowin’ locks jest disappeared like snow-balls in the Spring;Jest seemed to wilt an’ fade away like dead leaves in the Fall,An’ left old Chewed-ear balder than a white-washed cannon […]

Just Home and Love! the words are smallFour little letters unto each;And yet you will not find in allThe wide and gracious range of speechTwo more so tenderly complete:When angels talk in Heaven above,I’m sure they have no words more sweetThan Home and Love. Just Home and Love! it’s hard to guessWhich of the two […]

I’m scared of it all, God’s truth! so I am;It’s too big and brutal for me.My nerve’s on the raw and I don’t give a damnFor all the “hoorah” that I see.I’m pinned between subway and overhead train,Where automobillies swoop down:Oh, I want to go back to the timber again —I’m scared of the terrible […]

The cow-moose comes to water, and the beaver’s overbold,The net is in the eddy of the stream;The teepee stars the vivid sward with russet, red and gold,And in the velvet gloom the fire’s a-gleam.The night is ripe with quiet, rich with incense of the pine;From sanctuary lake I hear the loon;The peaks are bright against […]

Three score and ten, the psalmist saith,And half my course is well-nigh run;I’ve had my flout at dusty death,I’ve had my whack of feast and fun.I’ve mocked at those who prate and preach;I’ve laughed with any man alive;But now with sobered heart I reachThe Great Divide of Thirty-five. And looking back I must confessI’ve little […]

The Dreamer visioned Life as it might be,And from his dream forthright a picture grew,A painting all the people thronged to see,And joyed therein — till came the Man Who Knew,Saying: “‘Tis bad! Why do ye gape, ye fools!He painteth not according to the schools.” The Dreamer probed Life’s mystery of woe,And in a book […]

I Heed me, feed me, I am hungry, I am red-tongued with desire;Boughs of balsam, slabs of cedar, gummy fagots of the pine,Heap them on me, let me hug them to my eager heart of fire,Roaring, soaring up to heaven as a symbol and a sign.Bring me knots of sunny maple, silver birch and tamarack;Leaping, […]