Tears

As I've said other times, Father Ryan is not the best of poets. His verse is fairly simplistic and his words oftentimes not beautiful. I find, however, that in the very simplicity is the beauty because you see him as a common person, such as ourselves, living an everyday life, and in that I can connect and identify with his poetry in a way that I often cannot with flowery and "beautiful" speech.

TEARS
By: Father Ryan

The tears that trickled down our eyes,
They do not touch the earth to-day;
But soar like angels to the skies,
And, like the angels, may not die;
For ah ! our immortality
Flows thro' each tear - sounds in each sigh.

What waves of tears surge o'er the deep
Of sorrow in our restless souls!
And they are strong, not weak, who weep
Those drops from out the sea that rolls
Within their hearts forevermore;
Without a depth - without a shore.

But ah ! the tears that are not wept,
The tears that never outward fall;
The tears that grief for years has kept
Within us - they are best of all:
The tears our eyes shall never know,
Are dearer than the tears that flow.

Each night upon earth's flowers below,
The dew comes down from darkest skies,
And every night our tears of woe
Go up like dews to Paradise,
To keep in bloom, and make more fair,
The flowers of crowns we yet shall wear.

For ah ! the surest way to God
Is up the lonely streams of tears,
That flow when bending 'neath His rod,
And fill the tide of earthly years.
On laughter's billows hearts are tossed
On waves of tears no heart is lost.

Flow on, ye tears! and bear me home;
Flow not! ye tears of deeper woe;
Flow on, ye tears!that are but foam
Of deeper waves that will not flow.
A little while - I reach the shore
Where tears flow not forevermore!



Psalm 56:3-11 (NASB)

³When I am afraid,
I will put my trust in You.
⁴In God, whose word I praise,
In God I have put my trust;
I shall not be afraid
What can mere man do to me?
⁵All day long they distort my words;
All their thoughts are against me for evil.
⁶They attack, they lurk,
They watch my steps,
As they have waited to take my life.
⁷Because of wickedness, cast them forth,
In anger put down the peoples, O God!
⁸You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle Are they not in Your book?
⁹Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call;
This I know, that God is for me.
¹⁰In God, whose word I praise,
In the LORD, whose word I praise,
¹¹In God I have put my trust, I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?