Our Thursday group
     was singing its end song...
     "Let there be peace..."

I looked around the circle
     and counted 3/4 of
     my grandkids.

One was mouthing words...
     not singing out loud...
     but with us all the way.

The other two...
     wide-eyed and very small
     listened in mothers' arms.

I often wonder
      whether my weekly sayings
     really matter.

But I never wonder
     how much it matters
     to renew peace-hope
     each week.

It becomes exceptionally
     important
     when I look at those
     little grandkids!

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A Poem by my Granddad...

Dost thou despise
The Radical?
Of rabid speech and shaggy locks
And flaming eyes,
Thou safe and sane Conservative?

And dost thou smile, the while
In thy vast pride
And comfort-calloused hide?

And Yet a man
Who calmly can
Behold, unmoved,
The awful, useless,
Self-inflicted tragedies
Of his own time and race
And not be swept, betimes
From off his feet...

Who never flames with fury
And does not long
To blast the wretched wrong...

Is scarce a man!
And often is not fit to wash the feet
Of him who shouts and pleads
Upon the street.

Arthur D. Weage
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