Remembrance Day

What Do You Remember?

What do you remember of Nineteen and Thirty-nine
When war-clouds darkened the world’s skies To which yet some were blind?
What do you remember of that time of awful strife;
Of the German hordes and their Nazi lords and their disregard for life?
What do you remember of that time of total war,
When Canada’s sons and daughters fought on foreign shores?
What do you remember of those days now long gone by
When men-of-war plied the Seven Seas and warplanes filled the sky?
What do you remember of the bloodshed, the pain, the fear
Of “Missing in action; presumed dead.” — Words loved ones dreaded to hear?
What do you remember of that time away back then;
Of blackouts and of Victory Bonds and talk of fighting men?
What do you remember of Nineteen and Forty-five;
Of weary men on battle fronts just glad to be alive?
What do you remember, if anything at all,
Of the awful cost of all-out war when men answer duty’s call?
What do you remember of those returning home
With wounded legs and arms and eyes and terrors all their own.
What do you remember? Quite a lot, if you’re like me,
Even though, when that war began, I had not quite yet turned three.
But you say, “I can’t remember.” Then think and watch and pray
And give thanks to God, who made us all, for the freedoms you have today.

a. franklin staples
Copyright© 1992
by A. Franklin Staples

He Makes the Ugly Beautiful

He Makes the Ugly Beautiful

So you messed up again today

And you’re feeling so let down.

You think that God’s forsaken you,

That you’re not worthy of a crown;

Or your life’s been O so ugly -

There’s no beauty you can find,

And you think that God can’t love you.

Well, you’d better change your mind,

For loving is God’s business!

He sent His Son to die

That grace might be extended.

He hears the sinner’s cry.

Ah, the God who forms a diamond

From an ugly lump of coal

Can take a life that’s marred by sin

And make it clean and whole.

He makes the ugly beautiful,

Makes glad the saddened heart,

Puts back together, nay, makes brand new

What sin has torn apart.

a. franklin staples

June 5, 1991

Lord, I Thank You

Lord, I Thank You

Lord, I thank You for the trees and birds

And for the myriad flowers;

I thank You for the silence

Of the early morning hours.

I thank You, Lord, for air to breathe

And nourishing food to eat;

I thank You for the grace to take

The bitter with the sweet.

I thank You, Lord, for the family

That has so enriched my life;

I thank You for her whom You gave to me

To have and hold as wife.

I thank You for life’s blessings,

So many I can’t name;

I thank You, Lord, that in a changing world

You’re always just the same.

I thank You for the tests of life,

The hardships and the trials,

And I thank You, Lord, for the helping hands

And for the cheery smiles.

I thank You for Your Faithfulness

When I am plagued by doubt;

I thank You, Lord, for things I’ve missed,

Those that I’ve left out.

I thank You, Lord, for sunshine

And I thank You for the rain

And for all those things I’ve thanked You for,

I thank You, Lord, again.

a. franklin staples

October 7-16, 1991

The Demise of the Cardigan Bridge

The Demise of Cardigan Bridge

‘Twas the year of nineteen and seventy,
Morning of February Four,
When the ice of the Keswick River
Broke up with a deafening roar,
And was soon jammed up in jagged cakes
That groaned and creaked and shoved
On the upriver side of old Cardigan Bridge
That had stood for years, unmoved.
Now many’s the flood that it had endured
Since ‘twas built in the year Twenty-nine,
And nary a once did it move even an inch
In all of that length of time.
It had been travelled by horses and wagons and such
And people on foot used it, too,
And many’s the car that was slowed to a walk
As the old covered bridge it passed through,
For the signs at its portals warned of a fine,
A large one it was back then, too,
Twenty whole dollars, a fortune almost,
If faster than a walk one drove through!
Now, the first car to traverse it, I have been told,
Was Ralph Colter’s old Ford Model A,
And the last was a half-ton owned by Doug Jones
In the early morning of its very last day.
At about nine in the morning of February four,
As the ice jam built up on its north side,
The old bridge began to creak and to groan
And then it began to slide
Right off its pilings, like launching a boat,
And down the Keswick it plowed,
Around the first turn and then `round another
As the rain still poured down from the clouds.
Beaten and battered, twisted and torn,
It came finally to rest on the shore—
After forty-one years of spanning those waters,
The Cardigan Bridge was no more.

a. franklin staples

Copyright© 1990 by Allison F. Staples

Making A Banana Split

Making A Banana Split

Did you ever try making a banana split? Let me tell you that it is one of the most difficult things I have ever tried.

Why, I believe it would be a lot easier to make a hardwood board split than it is to make a banana split! The one time in my life that I tried it, I was a total failure.

In the first place, just how do you go about making a banana split? Do you talk to it? That’s a BIG problem in itself because I’m not sure bananas hear very well. In fact, I’m convinced that a banana is totally deaf!

The one I talked to for half an hour gave absolutely no indication that it heard one word I said. And as for splitting---why not even the tiniest weeniest crack was evident!


a. franklin staples
May 23, 1991