An Ode to Lady Winter

The time is coming, it has come. Nature yawns. The leaves change color.
Lady Winter has come to take her turn as steward of nature.
With fairness and grace that makes the ground glide,
She comes to charm the world and set to rest the mind.

The trees dance to meet her while the mountains reach up to embrace their queen
And for their anticipation and fidelity, Winter crowns them with her purity.
These majestic giants of nature will hold her banner
The longest until Spring comes for the scepter.

The grass is of the purest color, transforming nature into the most chaste virgin that ever was,
While Winter's page, Ice, adorns her with jewels and gems that glimmer and sparkle and gives her an aspect most felicitous.
Water also, overcome with sleep, cannot Winter's charms defy,
Who, to display her magnificence, freezes a waterfall in time.

Her reign spreads as trees are relieved of their colored clothing and nature has put on its nightgown.
The birds of winter, wind and silence, all disturbance drown.
They sing a lullaby that provokes the eyelids to flutter and winks to be few
And the chest to heave in peaceful quietude.

The clouds release their manna from the heavens at her order
To feast the eyes and souls of those who stay to wonder and to stay awake, among them being the pine and evergreen, who the watch have decided to take.
No wonder the Babe born in a manger chose her and her rule to receive him as King,
For once the world reawakens the gift will be on their doorstep for the taking.

I bow to her and show my fidelity
by wearing her token daily
and of her sovereignty I will take part.
My door is open to her. Let her enter in, she has won my heart

The Hammer and the Molded Iron

To be Master or be Slave
To be fearless or to be afraid
To be the person loved ones turn to
or to be the last one resorted to

To be the one to push against the stream
or to be swept away and sucked down with a scream
To be the one to help and aid
or the one to shrink and be afraid

I guess the question is whether to be a Hammer or a Molded Iron
What does it mean? What does it touch on?
The Hammer stays straight and true
while the iron writhes till split in two

To be A Hammer means
To keep swimming while others tire and drown
To keep charging when your fellows have fallen and gone down
To not reserve your strengths and to fight with all your might
To persevere, even with no victory in sight

To be the one to keep climbing
while you pass those who have turned back despairing
To stop along your way and aid someone
giving them encouragement and helping them push on

And the Molded Iron, who is he?
What is that expression? What does it mean?

It means
To give up at the first sign of resistance
to prefer temporal pleasures to endless bliss
To sit back and ignore the battle
while ending idle days in cheap chattel

To shy away when a voice is needed
and to ignore a plea that should be heeded
To yield to the devil and be molded by his sinful hand
and be struck against an anvil and give way and not stand

The world attacks us on one side and the flesh on the other
while the devil,yearning for our soul, charges from another
There are only two paths in this life, not three
Only two types of persons, which would you be?

A Warrior's Prayer

Lord, make me a true warrior in thy army,

May my sword never rust, my soul always clean,

My halberk always shining, my shield ever gleam

On the forced march when my legs scream in pain

I will open my mouth and praise thy Holy Name

During famine when my stomach groans in hunger

I will remember thee Calvary and fight with renewed vigor

My mouth always praising thee

My arm always defending thee

My eyes never leaving thee

And my stroke sweeping strongly

Whether it be Jewish yamaca or Muslim turban,

Protestant bible or Masonic vermin

I shall always stand for thee and my Queen

And never leave thy standard captured, but always free

If I were born one hundred years ago

Ah, if I was born a hundred years ago I believe I would have been a poet.
I would have written pages of things so beautiful that people would not have believed I wrote it.
things that come, things that go, things that live, things that died
things that go unremembered and for which none have shed a tear or cried
things of beauty uncompared,
things of great mysteries not yet shared,
things that make you laugh,
things that make you cry,
Yes, these things I would like to write about before I die
and be thus remembered by
-J. Thomas Schutzman

Spring

As the cold subsides and the snow turns to rain

So also do men’s hearts yearn to see the life of nature again.

With that same fervor that yielded cold and snow

Nature now produces life that begins to blossom and grow

The mist and cloud that absorbed even the sun

Now rolls back to reveal a world that is now hidden to none

The forest and snow-capped mountain

Is transformed into blooming life bubbling over like a fountain

With a heaving sigh and a whistling farewell

the winds of winter yield their occupations in forest and dell

the warmth of spring sets the frozen waters to liberty

as the warm soft ground begins to germinate and sets new shrub and flower free

With screams of delight and curiosity unleashed

Little children go forth and feel the growing ground beneath their feet

With new plant to discover and new butterfly to catch

Nature’s new adventurers go about in happiness as the door to life is unlatched

The new fawn learns to walk as a baby bird begins to chirp

And moles go about in the forest homing in the turf

The foals prance on the meadow as their mother looks proudly on

And roosters alike go through the dike to crow loudly at the dawn

For everyone spring is a season of joy and plenty

A season that starts life anew with all of its growth and beauty

To whom do we owe all of this life and grandeur? This beauty? This goodness?

It is God, my friends, who showers all of his blessings on us.

-J. Thomas Schutzman

A General in Defeat

Lee rode out of Appomattox
with nothing less than weary gaze
Men were crying all around him
some screamed for the blues to go to the blaze

I looked on our general and I cried too
for there was the man who had sacrificed everything for the good we knew
I just could'nt stand there and let things go this way
But I just didn't know what too say

But as he passed on his mount
I opened my heart and let it out
"Oh, general our hearts bleed for you
you are exhausted with fighting the boys in blue
Will you ever be the same
after seeing your boys on the battlefield slain?

You said sorry to us for the victories the Union won
But we still surrounded you and cheered you on
Don't blame yourself oh general for defeat on the field
for there was greater glory in your stubborness and unwillingness to yield

General, you glorify the Lord
even after defeat and you lay aside your sword
You say we should reconcile with our brothers in blue
well, guess we'll do it, for you

You also say to return to our families now
we will comply and return and mend the plow
we will rebuild the buildings the enemy burned
and teach our children what we learned

I, see sadness in your face
it is, I know, because you lost the race
but in that face I see a glint of hope
that blue and grey will again to cope
After we are settled we will not forget
the battlefields where we fought, where the blue and grey met

We will not forget the man who was our brave chief
the one who was glorious in victory, gallant in defeat
we tried to save the South and our rights too
you led us to the end and we still love you."

Not an eye was dry, not a voice without a sob
and I stepped back from the road, knowing I had done my job
The General seemed touched all the way through
"Thank you," he said, "God Bless you."

With his eye on the horizon and his lips tightly closed
our brave general rode away down the road
And as he turned around the bend
you could see his upright figure, a soldier to the end

- J. Thomas Schutzman