The Obit by Ethelbert Miller

by Admin | Nov 25, 2025 | Book Poems, Poems, Poetry

After reading my obituary

folks went to their local bookstores

looking for my books. For a few days I was often quoted

like Baldwin and

people went looking for T-shirts with my image. My

books rested on the desks of teachers filled with

bookmarks, notes, and underlined words. Someone said

a critic once said Ethelbert’s poems failed because they

were filled with too much desire and despair. The world

doesn’t need another Neruda. Ethelbert in his last

interview said

“Love is a fragile thing and will always suffocate in

darkness.”

Love is More Thicker Than Forget

by Admin | Nov 25, 2025 | Love Poems, Poems, Poetry

love is more thicker than forget

E. E. Cummings

love is more thicker than forget

more thinner than recall

more seldom than a wave is wet

more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly

and less it shall unbe

than all the sea which only

is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win

less never than alive

less bigger than the least begin

less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly

and more it cannot die

than all the sky which only

is higher than the sky

These Inward Trials

by Admin | Nov 25, 2025 | Poems, Prayer Poems, Religious Poems

These Inward Trials

I asked the Lord, that I might grow
In faith, and love, and every grace;
Might more of His salvation know,
And seek more earnestly His face.

T’was He who taught me thus to pray
and He I trust has answered prayer,
but it has been in such a way
it almost drove me to despair.

I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He’d answer my request,
and by His love’s constraining power
Subdue my sins, and give me rest.

Instead of this, He made me feel
the hidden evils of my heart;
And let the angry powers of hell
Assault my soul in every part.

Yea more, with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe;
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Blasted my gourds, and laid me low.

‘Lord, why is this?’ I trembling cried,
‘Wilt thou pursue Thy worm to death?’
‘This in this way,’ the Lord replied,
‘I answer prayer for grace and faith.

These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free;
And break thy schemes of earthly joy,
That thou mayst seek thy all in Me.’

John Newton

A Prayer for Victory over Temptation

by Admin | Nov 25, 2025 | Peace Poems, Prayer Poems, Religious Poems

A Prayer for Victory over Temptation

Haste to me, Lord, when this fool-heart of mine
Begins to gnaw itself with selfish craving;
Or, like a foul thing scarcely worth the saving,
Swoln up with wrath, desireth vengeance fine.
Haste, Lord, to help, when reason favours wrong;
Haste when thy soul, the high-born thing divine,
Is torn by passion’s raving, maniac throng.

Fair freshness of the God-breathed spirit air,
Pass through my soul, and make it strong to love;
Wither with gracious cold what demons dare
Shoot from my hell into my world above;
Let them drop down, like leaves the sun doth sear,
And flutter far into the inane and bare,
Leaving my middle-earth calm, wise, and clear.

A Prayer For You

by Admin | Nov 24, 2025 | Peace Poems, Poems, Religious Poems

A Prayer For You

Lenora McWhorter

Published by Family Friend Poems May 2018 with permission of the Author.

I lifted you to the Lord today
as I spent some time in prayer.
I asked God to be near you
and your burdens help you bear.

I could feel the Father smile
each time I called your name
because I talk to Him quite often
and my prayers are the same.

I pray that God will protect you
every minute of every day.
And to always direct your path
and guide you on your way.

I pray that God will give you joy
and shower you with His peace.
I pray He will smile down on you
so His blessings will not cease.

I pray God's love will keep you
So you won't waver in your faith.
And may His presence surround you
as He covers you with His grace.

Lenora McWhorter. "A Prayer For You."

The Peace Prayer of Saint Francis

by Admin | Nov 24, 2025 | Poems, Prayer Poems, Religious Poems

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in self-forgetting that we find;
And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

About The Prayer

The anonymous text that is usually called the Prayer of Saint Francis (or Peace Prayer, or Simple Prayer for Peace, or Make us an Instrument of Your Peace) is a widely known Christian prayer for peace. Often associated with the Italian Saint Francis of Assisi (c. 1182 – 1226), but entirely absent from his writings, the prayer in its present form has not been traced back further than 1912. Its first known occurrence was in French, in a small spiritual magazine called La Clochette (The Little Bell), published by a Catholic organization in Paris named La Ligue de la Sainte-Messe (The League of the Holy Mass). The author's name was not given, although it may have been the founder of La Ligue, Father Esther Bouquerel. The prayer was heavily publicized during both World War I and World War II. It has been frequently set to music by notable songwriters and quoted by prominent leaders, and its broadly inclusive language has found appeal with many faiths encouraging service to others