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    The Best That I Can Do: Poems Old and New
    The Best That I Can Do: Poems Old and New
    The Best That I Can Do: Poems Old and New
    Ebook72 pages32 minutes

    The Best That I Can Do: Poems Old and New

    By Paul Leary

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    About this ebook

    The stories of our lives

    Are not made up of
    Grand events, or the few
    If any, moments of real
    Joy, or sorrow,
    Rather they are tapestries
    Woven of the the threads
    Of the everyday experiences
    We share with others.
    Thread by selected thread
    We weave our creations
    Each choosing our own
    Colors and designs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherXlibris US
    Release dateOct 14, 2019
    ISBN9781796052220
    The Best That I Can Do: Poems Old and New

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      Book preview

      The Best That I Can Do - Paul Leary

      Copyright © 2019 by Paul Leary.

      ISBN:       Softcover       978-1-7960-5223-7

                       eBook            978-1-7960-5222-0

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

      Rev. date: 10/11/2019

      Xlibris

      1-888-795-4274

      www.Xlibris.com

      785072

      For my wife Rosemary—all that I am

      or ever shall be I owe to you

      CONTENTS

      The Book of Ruth

      After Eden

      A Bully Circus, (A, B, C)

      Song of the Woodpecker

      Chance

      The Rabbi’s Hat

      An Earthworm

      Genesis

      A Moment in Time

      Addiction

      Companions

      The Playoffs

      Encounter

      Ephemera

      Eastham Beach

      Icarus

      Great Names in Baseball

      Song of the Woodpecker

      The Show

      A Conscious Stillness

      A Wrangler’s Revenge

      Birdsong

      An October Rose

      Love Me Do

      My Butterfly

      Pickett’s Charge

      Pinocchio

      Report of the Field Mouse

      A Song of Innocence

      A Song of Experience

      The Avesta

      The Call

      The Empty House

      The stories of our lives

      Zero

      Twilight

      Upended

      Autumn Butterfly

      My Bodyguard

      Harvest Poem

      Shooting Stars

      Morning Glory

      Beyond the Call of Duty

      October Song

      Trapped

      THE BOOK OF RUTH

      Aged now and ravaged by time

      is she. Empty as a ruined mill.

      Withered as a cornstalk

      after the harvest is Ruth,

      an old woman of the road.

      A woman who, in her prime,

      had a home and family, has fallen on ill

      times and is condemned now to walk

      the very streets she knew in her youth,

      searching for a place to put down her load.

      Ruth, a name that embodies fidelity,

      is shunned by those she once held dear.

      She wanders through the world alone,

      without a friend, or a hearth or a home

      and no one to care if she lives or dies.

      Aware now am I of our shared humanity.

      That Ruth and I are really one, is made clear

      to me. Her life is not separate from my own.

      Henceforth, no matter where she might roam,

      I go with her and will til death itself closes my eyes.

      AFTER EDEN

      (a poem in three parts)

      Part I

      The Sojourners

      Arm in arm they walk through time

      on a journey never ending.

      Endless is the road behind.

      the way ahead, is ever wending.

      Two figures carved in teak

      of a Chinese farmer and his wife

      adorn the bowl of

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