And Tender Words Always

Sweet April! - Many a Thought

AN APRIL DAY
by Henry Longfellow

When the warm sun, that brings
Seed-time and harvest, has returned again,
’Tis sweet to visit the still wood, where springs
The first flower of the plain.

I love the season well,
When forest glades are teeming with bright forms,
Nor dark and many-folded clouds foretell
The coming-on of storms.

From the earth’s loosened mould
The sapling draws its sustenance, and thrives;
Though stricken to the heart with Winter’s cold,
The drooping tree revives.

The softly-warbled song
Comes from the pleasant woods, and coloured wings
Glance quick in the bright sun, that moves along
The forest openings.

When the bright sunset fills
The silver woods with light, the green slope throws
Its shadows in the hollows of the hills,
And wide the upland glows.

And, when the eve is born,
In the blue lake the sky, o’er-reaching far,
Is hollowed out, and the moon dips her horn,
And twinkles many a star.

Inverted in the tide,
Stand the grey rocks, and trembling shadows throw;
And the fair trees look over, side by side,
And see themselves below.

Sweet April!—many a thought
Is wedded unto thee, as hearts are wed;
Nor shall they fail, till, to its autumn brought,
Life’s golden fruit is shed.

The Lord Has Risen Indeed

Death, Where Is Your Sting?
Words by Kay Beall, based on I Corinthians 15 
Music by Lloyd Larson

Death, where is your sting?
Oh grave, where is your victory? 
Give thanks to God! Sing thanks to God! 
He has overcome the world.

The first man Adam was a living soul 
By power of death held fast.
By we, in the likeness of Christ the King, 
Know the power of death is past.

Death, where is your sting?
Oh grave, where is your victory? 
Give thanks to God! Sing thanks to God! 
He has overcome the world!

Listen, I’ll tell you a mystery:
We shall all be changed,
In a flash of light, at the trumpet’s sound 
We will stand on holy ground.

Death, where is your sting?
Oh grave, where is your victory! 
Give thanks to God! Sing thanks to God! 
He has overcome the world.

A Prayer in Spring

Prayer in Spring
by Robert Frost

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.

Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.

And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.

For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfil.

Chinese Lunar New Year, 17 February 2026

 
Chinese Lunar New Year, 17 February 2026 
(Year of the Horse*)  

*If one attributes the Five Elements to a birth year 
or the Zodiac it self, it would then have a name preceded 
with any of the five elements: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, 
or Water.  

Accordingly, the year 2026 belongs to the element Fire.
Therefore, the Year of the Horse could also be called 
the Year of the Fire Horse.  

Valentine’s Day

The Fountain of Youth  
J. Wm. Lloyd (1899)  
  
THE years roll on, and the head grows grey,
But the longing heart doth ever pray,
With a prayer too deep for words to say.

Love is the fountain of youth alway.

“Thou art old!” mocks Love, “and hast had thy day.”
But the heart protesteth:
“Nay, O nay!
My life is love, alway, alway,
And the human heart is young for aye.”

  Love is a fountain of youth alway.

“Thou art old,” saith Love, “and thy debt must pay.”
But the heart makes answer:
“Nay, O nay!
My hunger groweth every day,
Grows stronger with eating the years away;
Age is for earnest and youth for play,
The hottest coals ’neath the ashes stay,
And the human heart is young for aye.”

Love is the fountain of youth alway.

 

Tomorrow Is Saint Valentine’s Day

Tomorrow is Saint Valentine's day
All in the morning betime,
And I a maid at your window,
To be your Valetntine.

-Shakepeare

betime(adv.)
early, at an early hour

Lunar New Year 2025

Tomorrow is Chinese Lunar New Year, or Year of the Snake.  
Enclosed is a Google Doodle of Lunar New Year.

Notice on the left side of the doodle.  Inside the “red” 
square is the Chinese word for  “fortune”.  It is, however,
placed upside down.  The euphemism is “fortune comes down 
or showers from heaven to the recipient.  Therefore, the 
word is placed upside down to represent such good wish(s)
for the New Year. Also, the lit firecrackers are to chase 
away the bad omens or demons. So, it is placed below the
upside down word “fortune(s)”.  By the way, there are no
plurals in Chinese words, so “fortune” and “fortunes” uses
the same singular word.

The long and short for the entire symbolism is translated
something like “may good fortune(s) always shower down
and envelope you.”

A New Year Poem

With grateful hearts the past we own;
The future, all to us unknown,
We to Thy guardian care commit,
And peaceful leave before Thy feet.
 
Philip Doddridge 
(1702 - 1751)

A Christmas Poem

CHRISTMAS
Benjamin Copeland
(1896)

O HOLY, happy morning,
That saw the Saviour's birth!
The star, thy brow adorning,
Beams mercy on the earth.
For shepherds, and for sages,
Thy cheer, impartial, free,—
The travail of the ages
Finds recompense in thee.

My soul, be thou believing,—
No more thy past deplore;
In Christ all loss retrieving,
Rejoice for evermore.
By love unknown attended,
Thy weary watch and ward,—
Behold! the vision splendid!
The angel of the Lord!

And hark! the herald angel!
The radiant, rapturous throng!
The ravishing evangel
Floods all the hills with song:
"To God in heaven, glory,
Good will to men below;"
Speed, speed the blessed story,
That all the world may know.