Samuel Ellsworth Kiser Poems

I fight a battle every day
Against discouragement and fear;
Some foe stands always in my way,
The path ahead is never clear!
...

I have hoped, I have planned, I have striven,
To the will I have added the deed;
The best that was in me I've given,
...

WHY try to make us think that all is wrong
And that the world is drifting to its doom ?
Why interrupt a singer's hopeful song
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That I may not in blindness grope,
But that I may with vision clear
Know when to speak a word of hope
Or add a little wholesome cheer.
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Faith is not merely praying
Upon your knees at night;
Faith is not merely straying
Through darkness to the light.
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WHY should I sit in doubt or fear? If I
Awake some morning from that dreaded sleep
To find myself new-born and lifted high,
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If I was paw and paw was me,
Gee! what a great thing that 'ud be!
I wouldn't whip him just 'cause he
Went sneakin' off sometimes to fish;
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OH, if you only knowed how much I like
To stand here, when the 'old man' ain't around
And watch your soft, white fingers while you pound
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I WISH, when you was through your work some night
And goin' home alone, and had your pay
Stuck in your stockin'--what you drew that day--
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I HAVE failed in a thousand cases,
But I still have the heart to try ;
I am scarred in a hundred places,
No darling of Luck am I
...