Photography © by Joan Clifton Costner
Note New Website URL
(For Grandparents and Grandchildren of
dysfunctional families.)
A Better Way
We could have done it better, you and I.
We could have loved each other, long and wise.
And, wouldn’t the world be better blest
If differences were laid to rest
And love could fly?
The blessings of a happy home are so diverse.
We reap them, even when we’re at our worst.
Say we would never take away
What God has given you, today,
To pad our case.
It felt so good, for just a little while,
When I saw, now and then, your baby smile.
I thought, perhaps, we’d show the world
A better way, a sweeter girl,
With insight rare!
A few tears now, a hug, a kiss, a sigh ...
No long hellos, but many long good byes.
You spy me coming down the street.
I stop the car and dare to meet
This treasure in your eyes!
One day, the weary waiting will be done.
You’ll be grown up and then be free to come.
But Love, the memories we’ll have missed ...
The playground picnic, grandma kiss,
All forfeited for pride.
Life’s ever changing, never stays the same.
Platonic love is more than just a name.
The Lord could call for you or me.
And then, dear heart, where would we be?
Lost, for Eternity?
You bear within your body signs of mine.
Your blood, your talents, call of distant time.
How I abhor the forces that restrain!
Keep back the love I feel in vain ...
And wisdom dies.
I wonder, when it all is said and done,
If these that hold the power will have won
A single thing worth Godly honor or praise?
Or, will the childhood only be a maze
Of broken paths?
We could have loved each other, long and wise.
And, wouldn’t the world be better blest
If differences were laid to rest
And love could fly?
The blessings of a happy home are so diverse.
We reap them, even when we’re at our worst.
Say we would never take away
What God has given you, today,
To pad our case.
It felt so good, for just a little while,
When I saw, now and then, your baby smile.
I thought, perhaps, we’d show the world
A better way, a sweeter girl,
With insight rare!
A few tears now, a hug, a kiss, a sigh ...
No long hellos, but many long good byes.
You spy me coming down the street.
I stop the car and dare to meet
This treasure in your eyes!
One day, the weary waiting will be done.
You’ll be grown up and then be free to come.
But Love, the memories we’ll have missed ...
The playground picnic, grandma kiss,
All forfeited for pride.
Life’s ever changing, never stays the same.
Platonic love is more than just a name.
The Lord could call for you or me.
And then, dear heart, where would we be?
Lost, for Eternity?
You bear within your body signs of mine.
Your blood, your talents, call of distant time.
How I abhor the forces that restrain!
Keep back the love I feel in vain ...
And wisdom dies.
I wonder, when it all is said and done,
If these that hold the power will have won
A single thing worth Godly honor or praise?
Or, will the childhood only be a maze
Of broken paths?
© by Joan Clifton Costner