Saturday Poetry Corner: The Lilacs

With lilacs in bloom at the door,

Then the banners of Grouchdom are furled...

Lilacs In Bloom

Photograph by Paula Daniels

And life is worth living once more,

The loved ones gone yonder come back

To breathe once again their perfume,

And joy has a clear open track

We all are together again,

The mother that loved them is here;

The grandfather taps with his cane

The walks that he once held so dear.

The family circle is whole

And sunshine has banished the gloom,

And memories sweet flood the soul

With the old-fashioned lilacs in bloom.

Home is nearer to Heaven it seems,

And the stream that divides not so vast;

For we live once again in our dreams

The scenes of our sanctified past.

And back to us come in a troop

The loved ones, asleep in the tomb,

To sit for a while on the stoop

With the old-fashioned lilacs in bloom.

"The Lilacs"

Edward Albert Guest

(1881-1959)

British-born American poet

often called, "The People's Poet