Douglas Malloch

“ It is love that is wide as the arches of stars from the east to the west;
It is love that is long as the marches of sunrise to sunset and rest;
It is love that is strong as the larches that mount to earth’s uttermost crest.
In the woods we are rougher than others you know in the parlors of town;
To the wolf and the wild we are brothers, we are kin to the creatures of brown;
It is long since we crept to our mothers and slept on our pillows of down. [Pg 111]
For we sleep in the huts of the humble and we live on a sturdier fare ”

“ They knew no better music than that the pine-tree sings. [Pg 39]
Our woodsbred northern women (There were no weaklings there)
Wove not a blood-red banner for sire and son to bear—
But northern snow, and pine-tree, and purity, and pray’r.
Our woodsbred northern women (whose men went forth to war)
Sent them not forth in passion to fight on sea and shore
But with a holy purpose gave up the sons they bore.
Our woodsbred northern women, no more against the skies
Your strange, unwarlike banner in cause or conflict flies;
But we see your souls courageous in your children’s children’s eyes. ”

“ Yea, the brothers are of a sisterhood of the sisters loved or lone,
And you can not slander the least and say that the world shall spare your own.
For a woman’s name and a woman’s fame they are sweet, and frail, as flowers;
But the strength to shield and the arm to wield for the woman’s name are ours.
Let the God-made man keep his God-made trust till his life’s last twilight fades—
For we are the sons of the mothers of men and brother to all the maids.
[Pg 106]
THE SNOW IS HERE
The snow is here. ”

“ I know not why these shadows come, these shades of vain desire,
I do but know they creeping come to sit beside the fire;
And earth is but an empty place, and joy has flickered out,
And faith has fallen by the hand, assassin hand, of doubt. ”

“ For the bigness of life is about him, the bigness of heaven and star;
Though the city runs onward without him, forgetting the forest afar,
When he speaks let no cleverness doubt him, for he speaks of the things as they are. [Pg 113]
And this is the love that I bring you, the love of the man out-of-doors;
And this is the song that I sing you, the song that the nightingale pours,
The song that the nightingales fling you from eventide’s musical shores.
The shepherd boy carols his meter, and follow the feet of his herds;
The song of the skylark is fleeter because of the absence of words ”

“ THE WOODS
POSSESSION
There’s some of us has this world’s goods,
An’ some of us has none—
But all of us has got the woods,
An’ all has got the sun.
So, settin’ here upon the stoop,
This patch o’ pine beside,
I never care a single whoop—
Fer I am satisfied.
Now, take the pine on yonder hill:
It don’t belong to me;
The boss he owns the timber—still,
It’s there fer me to see. ”

“ You will light on the shack,
In the timber a ways,
Of a party whose name
It is Jim.
[Pg 35]
SETTIN’ IN THE SUN
I reckon the party who sets on a throne
Has a perfectly miser’ble time;
There always is someone a-pickin’ a bone
With a king or a monarch sublime.
Some calculate maybe that bein’ a king
Is a job that is gen’ally fun—
Well, well, it may be,
But the best thing, to me,
Is jest settin’ right here in the sun. ”

“ The zephyr kissed the tresses of the lass, the little lass,
The saucy ray of sun was even bolder.
The waters came to meet her, lapped her feet, her tiny feet,
The roses threw their perfume all around her.
’Twas then I knew the Summertime, the Summertime complete—
’Tis Summertime forever since I found her!
[Pg 51]
CONTRAST
Nature loves neither silences nor noise,
She has her silence and she has her sound. ”

“ I have drunk with their sheriffs an’ played with their cops, with my life as the stake in the draw.
I have traveled their streets in the glare of the sun, while the he-hounds were hot on the track—
I have shaken them all, shaken all but the one, but the one thet will never turn back. [Pg 96]
Fer the world may fergit, er the world may not know, er the world it may know an’ not care,
But ferever beside me wherever I go still another walks close who was there. ”

“ God knows thet I tell what I know, fer my own it has risen an’ spoken to me. [Pg 94]
It has risen an’ spoken its speech by the light of the flickerin’ flame of the fire,
It has come with its voice where the lamps glittered bright on a mob thet was drunk with desire.
Fer I know not the hour thet the visitor brings—in the night, in the day, it is near;
It has come when no step stirred the stillness of things, it has come when a hundred were here.
An’ it knows all the past, ev’ry step of the road I have traveled the years thet are gone ”

“ Next week fer a job you kin rustle,
The fool thet you are.
Oh, yes, they all think he’s the candy,
A sport, a good fellow, who spends;
I hope, when they say you’re a dandy,
You’re proud of your friends.
When you know jest how little there’s in it,
Will you hand out your good money still?
When you know they’re but friends fer a minute? ”

“ For, see! the Springtime stands
Our drooping eyes to raise
To fair and shining strands;
The Springtime comes and lays
A lily in his hands.
[Pg 20]
“LIFE”
Man, thrust upon the world, awakes from sleep,
Knowing not whence he came nor how nor why. ”

“ Are puttin’ on powder fer fair—
The ladies whose kisses are tainted
Are waitin’ you there. [Pg 124]
I’ve been through the mill, an’ I know it—
I know jest the fool thet you are;
Oh, you’ll be a sport, an’ you’ll throw it
In gobs on the bar.
It’s “Drinks fer the house!” you’ll be yellin’;
The bums will be there to partake.
They’ll laugh at the stories you’re tellin’,
An’ gobble your stake.
While you have been pullin’ a briar,
With beans an’ sow-belly to chew,
The grafters have set by the fire
A-waitin’ fer you—
The streak up their backs it is yellah,
An’ life without work is the rule ”

“ All thet I can do is trust,
Since they can’t agree,
When I lay me “dust to dust”
There’ll be one fer me.
[Pg 78]
THE PLAYGROUND
The city street, the city street,
Lies heavy on the town—
An awful avenue of heat,
Whose rays of yellow Summer beat
Upon the stones of brown,
Where little children’s weary feet
Creep slowly up and down.
The houses rise, the houses rise,
Beside the thoroughfare;
Their windows look with bloodshot eyes
O’er huddled roofs to smoky skies,
And find no promise there ”

“ Thet we all are headin’ for
Looks so far an’ ghostly
’Cause we’re lookin’ (like to-night
We are lookin’ at the light)
Through a fog-bank mostly. [Pg 58]
How the asphalt pavements shine!—
Almost lookin’ clean.
Ev’ry lamp post makes a line
Like the shadow of a pine
On a snowy scene.
In the gutter nigh
Little ripples curl an’ comb,
Little dirty rivers foam,
In an hour to die.
They are like the stream of life,
Full of work an’ play an’ strife,
Proud with splash an’ splutter.
Each believes himself a flood—
Most of us is only mud
Runnin’ down a gutter. [Pg 59]
Rainin’? ”

“ I figger the soul of a man is the same underneath of a coat er a shirt,
An’ I figger the heart thet pumps life through his frame is the same under di’monds er dirt.
Fer his face may be homely an’ tough be his hide an’ busted the bridge of his beak,
But the Soul of the cuss is a-settin’ inside an’ awaitin’ its moment to speak.
The Soul of the cuss is a-settin’ ’way back, until maybe the lobster fergits
There is any such thing as a Soul in the shack to take note of his devilish fits. ”

“ The water thet will fall an’ freeze;
Thus, by the aid of his device,
Lays down an avenue of ice.
At morn the busy teams will bump
Along the way with mighty load
An’ find a passage to the dump
Along the tank conductor’s road—
Will pile their creakin’ bolsters full
An’ brag about the loads they pull.
There are a lot of us, I guess,
Who call ourselves “self-made” an’ such,
Who talk about our own success,
Yet haven’t done so very much.
Fer, ten to one, some other cuss
Went out an’ iced the road fer us. ”

“ To call them a name was to go to the mat.
They worshiped a woman an’ hated a nigger
An’ fought fer a friend at the drop of the hat.
They fought, when they fought, with the fists thet God give ’em—
No knife er no gun is an Irishman’s style. ”

“ What in the world kin it be?
Out of the woods it breaks forth—
Call of the wild in the air.
What do I hear
With my listenin’ ear?
Somethin’ a-coaxin’ me there.
Wind has swung ’round to the north,
Sky has a promise of snow,
Moon on the hill
It is silver an’ chill;
An’ I am longin’ to go— [Pg 102]
Breathin’ the breath of the pine,
Walkin’ the hayroad again,
Hearin’ old tales
An’ trampin’ old trails,
Bunkin’ with men thet are men—
Men thet are pardners of mine,
Fighters an’ workers an’ kings,
Men who have stood
By my side in the wood
At the beginnin’ of things. ”

“ I am the low-down cuss,
I am the standin’ joke,
I am the easy meat.
Fellah thet skids the log
Gits all the fame an’ fuss—
What of the man who broke
Roads fer the hosses’ feet?
Sing of the arm thet’s strong,
Sing of the saw thet shines,
Sing of the chopper’s might,
Sing of the boss’s brain;
Who ever sung your song,
Swampers among the pines,
Fellahs who led the fight
Out in the snow an’ rain? [Pg 82]
We are the pioneers,
We are the great advance,
We are the men who break
Roads with our horny hands. ”

“ Thet lays in the woods at the stump,
You kin swear you will haul
Ev’ry stick of it all
To the road an’ the bank an’ the dump,
But she’s got all creation ag’in you,
The sun an’ the wind an’ all that,
An’ she’ll bust ev’ry road
An’ she’ll stall ev’ry load
An’ your timber will stay where it’s at. ”

“ Thet is just as plain.
There is bunions yet—
Fer a corn er bunion is
’Most as good as rheumatiz
Prophesyin’ wet.
When you see a cat eat grass,
When you see the small-mouth bass
Sendin’ up a bubble,
When you hear a rain-crow caw—
It is simply Nature’s law
Indicatin’ trouble. [Pg 57]
Rainin’, is it? ”