
<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div dir="ltr"><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div dir="ltr"><span style="color: rgb(84, 130, 53); font-family: "Comic Sans MS"; font-size: 26pt; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: white;">Peace on Earth</span><div dir="ltr"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(72, 72, 72); background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(72, 72, 72); background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">by Edwin Arlington Robinson<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(72, 72, 72); background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">He took a frayed hat from his head, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(72, 72, 72);"><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">And “Peace on Earth” was what he said. </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“A morsel out of what you’re worth, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">And there we have it: Peace on Earth. </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Not much, although a little more </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Than what there was on earth before </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">I’m as you see, I’m Ichabod,— </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">But never mind the ways I’ve trod; </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">I’m sober now, so help me God.” </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">I could not pass the fellow by. </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“Do you believe in God?” said I; </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“And is there to be Peace on Earth?” </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“Tonight we celebrate the birth,” </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">He said, “of One who died for men; </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The Son of God, we say. What then? </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Your God, or mine? I’d make you laugh </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Were I to tell you even half </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">That I have learned of mine today </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Where yours would hardly seem to stay. </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Could He but follow in and out </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Some anthropoids I know about, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The god to whom you may have prayed </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Might see a world He never made.” </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“Your words are flowing full,” said I; </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“But yet they give me no reply; </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Your fountain might as well be dry.” </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“A wiser One than you, my friend, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Would wait and hear me to the end; </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">And for his eyes a light would shine </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Through this unpleasant shell of mine </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">That in your fancy makes of me </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">A Christmas curiosity. </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">All right, I might be worse than that; </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">And you might now be lying flat; </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">I might have done it from behind, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">And taken what there was to find. </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Don’t worry, for I’m not that kind. </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">‘Do I believe in God?’ Is that </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">The price tonight of a new hat? </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Has he commanded that his name </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Be written everywhere the same? </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Have all who live in every place </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Identified his hidden face? </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Who knows but he may like as well </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">My story as one you may tell? </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">And if he show me there be Peace </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">On Earth, as there be fields and trees </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Outside a jail-yard, am I wrong </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">If now I sing him a new song? </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Your world is in yourself, my friend, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">For your endurance to the end; </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">And all the Peace there is on Earth </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Is faith in what your world is worth, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">And saying, without any lies, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Your world could not be otherwise.” </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“One might say that and then be shot,” </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">I told him; and he said: “Why not?” </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">I ceased, and gave him rather more </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Than he was counting of my store. </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">“And since I have it, thanks to you, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Don’t ask me what I mean to do,” </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Said he. “Believe that even I </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Would rather tell the truth than lie— </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">On Christmas Eve. No matter why.” </span><br><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">His unshaved, educated face, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">His inextinguishable grace. </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">And his hard smile, are with me still, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Deplore the vision as I will; </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">For whatsoever he be at, </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">So droll a derelict as that </span><br><span style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial;">Should have at least another hat.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p></div><div><br></div>—————————————————<br><br><div dir="ltr"><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/">http://www.moscowcares.com/</a></div><div><br></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><br></div><div>“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met.”</div><div>- Roy E. Stolworthy</div><div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>