“Around the Corner”

“Around the Corner”

Several years ago I ran across this poem and have found it to be a reminder of how quickly life happens. Let us use today and contact those around us to lift them up and see how we can assist them.


Around the corner I have a friend,

In this great city that has no end;

Yet days go by and weeks rush on,

And before I know it, a year is gone,

And I never see my old friend’s face.

For life is a swift and terrible race.

He knows I like him just as well

As in the days when I rang his bell

And he rang mine. We were younger then,

And now we are busy, tired men:

Tired of playing a foolish game,

Tired of trying to make a name.

“Tomorrow,” I say, “I will call on Jim

just to show that I am thinking of him.”

But tomorrow comes—and tomorrow goes,

And the distance between us grows and grows.

Around the corner!—yet miles away …

“Here’s a telegram, Sir,”… “Jim died today.”

And that’s what we get and deserve in the end:

Around the corner, a vanished friend.

—Charles Hanson Towne


“For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes.” (James 4:14; ESV)

Just some thoughts,

A Discovered Poem

A Discovered Poem

The poem below was discovered in the collections of Fannie Crosby. You may know Fannie Crosby through various songs in many songbooks, but here is a poem she wrote regarding an “Unanswered Prayer.”

“For What His Love Denies.”

God does not give me all I ask,
Nor answer as I pray;
But, O, my cup is brimming o’er
With blessings day by day.
How oft the joy I thought withheld
Delights my longing eyes,

And so I thank Him from my heart
For what His love denies.
Sometimes I miss a treasured link
In friendship’s hallowed chain,
And yet His smile is my reward
For every throb of pain.
I look beyond, where purer joys
Delight my longing eyes;

And so I thank Him from my heart
For what His love denies.
How tenderly He leadeth me
When earthly hopes are dim;
And when I falter by the way,
He bids me lean on Him.
He lifts my soul above the clouds
Where friendship never dies;
And so I thank Him from my heart
For what His love denies.

—Fanny Crosby, Jan. 6, 1899

 

Just some thoughts,