~The Water Mill~

Listen to the water mill,

Through the livelong day;

How the clicking of the wheel

Wears the hours away.

Languidly the autumn wind

Stirs the withered leaves;

On the field the reapers sing,

Binding up the sheaves;

And a proverb haunts my mind,

And as a spell is cast,

" The mill will never grind

With the water that has passed. "

 

Take the lesson to thyself,

Loving heart and true;

Golden years are fleeting by,

Youth is passing, too.

Learn to make the most of life,

Lose no happy day!

Time will ne'er return again —

Sweet chances thrown away.

Leave no tender word unsaid,

But love while love shall last:

" The mill will never grind

With the water that has passed. "

 

O, love thy God and fellow man,

Thyself consider last;

For come it will when thou must scan

Dark errors of the past.

And when the fight of life is o'er

And earth recedes from view.

And heaven in all its glory shines.

'Midst the good, the pure, the true,

Then you will see more clearly

The proverb, deep and vast:

" The mill will never grind

With the water that has passed. "

 

By Sarah Doudney

(Excerpt from her much longer poem, written at age 15)

maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Puddlechurch/202/197/16

 

 

Done