Poems by Virginia Mosley
Dublin Core
Title
Poems by Virginia Mosley
Description
Six poems written by Virginia Mosley, Borough Historian. Each appeared on a separate card.
Creator
Virginia Mosley
Source
Virginia T. Mosley Local History Collection
Date
2000-2001
Rights
This image is presented by the Tenafly Public Library under title 17 of the US Copyright Code for the purposes of noncommercial research and personal study. Some images may be available for reproduction under fair use provisions. For additional information about the use or reproduction of materials in this Collection, please contact tenfcirc@bccls.org.
Format
text
Language
English
Type
poem
Identifier
poem_admonition_vmosley.pdf
poem_attitudes_vmosley.pdf
poem_primarysources_vmosley.pdf
poem_responsibility_vmosley.pdf
poem_tenaflyjuly42003_vmosley.pdf
poem_attitudes_vmosley.pdf
poem_primarysources_vmosley.pdf
poem_responsibility_vmosley.pdf
poem_tenaflyjuly42003_vmosley.pdf
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
Admonition
Remove not these landmarks,
these signs that point the way!
Our past can show us
where we ought to go today.
What is a landmark?
A broken bough, marking a trail?
A pile of stones, a holy grail?
A beacon in a park?
A lighthouse on a pond?
A school, a church, a golden dome,
A chair, a bench, a lonely home?
A pepperidge tree with a joint?
A bluff on the Palisades,
Across the Hudson, a tower?
Beneath the rock, a bower,
A campanile in the glades?
A Stonehenge, a Mystery Hill,
An old courthouse, a carved rock-face?
To a landmark on an ancient place,
Or a site where people are still?
Remove not these landmarks, I say,
When they are gone,
how will man find his way?
Virginia T. Mosley
Borough Historian, Tenafly, NJ
Attitudes
How does one act
After an attack
on our Freedom?
Whom do we trust?
To whom do we listen?
As our eyes glisten,
What do we believe?
Whom do we believe?
We can say prayers.
Emotion we relieve,
Our Loving Father,
Comfort all who mourn,
As you gather your children
Into your loving arms.
Be with us in our days
As we turn to Thee.
Let us raise
Our voices in praise
of American's Freedom
and Liberty.
May we all together share
Our love and our care
For American's Freedom
and Liberty.
Virginia T. Mosley
Tenafly, New Jersey
October 3, 2001
Primary Source
Is that the way it happened
When our ancestors were alive,
Or are we repeating a story
One parent told a child?
Did you really search
Back to the first beginning?
Or did you stop
And make a hop
Because your brain was spinning.
It's easier to copy
someone else's error
Than to follow back
and live in terror.
With actuality staring us
in the face,
We step back quite a pace.
If my grandmother married
her brother,
What does that say to me?
That record is not right!
How could it possibly be?
Read the list of men
paying poll tax.
They couldn't vote
unless they did.
It also means they weren't
lax, they
Deliberately didn't pay
the Real Estate Tax.
Virginia T. Mosley
Tenafly, New Jersey
Responsibility
If we see a wisp of smoke
Where it shouldn't be,
What is our responsibility?
Were we never taught
A wisp of smoke has dangers
fraught?
On a peak far away
There's a Forest Ranger.
He can't always see
Where there is a new danger.
See a wisp of smoke
Let two girls ride horseback
to a phone.
Let the Forest Ranger know
he's not alone.
This is not a joke.
Organize help to dig a trench
Where the tree can fall,
Then bury it all.
But there still will be
quite a stench.
A wisp of smoke need not make
A forest fire if you take
Responsibility.
Virginia T. Mosley
Tenafly, New Jersey
Tenafly 4th of July, 2003
I miss the sound of
Ponies' feet,
As they clop, clop
Down the street.
I miss the noise
Of girls and boys
As they slop, slop
Down the street.
No forbidden firecrackers escape,
A loud noise they used to make.
Music blared forth
On the Fourth.
So did the day begin.
Flags flew at every home.
Hark! A siren sounds
Is it a fire or a summons
To gather at the Commons?
Will any one say
The Pledge of Allegiance today?
Or will the Routh mean
Another day of play?
At ten a.m. the only sound
A dog's bark did rebound.
We've had our fire crackers
Two night's ago. What should th eFourth
Mean to me?
I'm a member of D.A.R.
So my allegiance
Spreads far.
The fireworks seen in the air
A blast of noise and lights that glare.
The saving grace of the day of the Fourth
Is the Pledge of Allegiance
Said by all.
Virginia T. Mosley
Borough Historian
Tenafly New Jersey
July 4, 2003
Why a Library?
A man may have a dream, and
Put it down on paper, and
Plan a lot. But until that
Lot is of the land and a
House built, that dream is
Nothing more than wishful
Thinking.
A man may have a dream of
Wondrous worlds to conquer,
Of how to climb mountains
And sail the seas. But if
His dream is not girded by
Knowledge, he may try and fail.
Then his dream will fade away.
A book may be that bridge
Between dream and reality.
A book may really help
To sail the seas. A book
May be the dream of what
He wants to see, or help
Understanding other lands.
A Library may have that book
Which inspires man to greatness,
As he dreams of what is past.
What lives is in his mind
And hands.
Virginia T. Mosley
Borough Historian
Tenafly, NJ
December 2000
Remove not these landmarks,
these signs that point the way!
Our past can show us
where we ought to go today.
What is a landmark?
A broken bough, marking a trail?
A pile of stones, a holy grail?
A beacon in a park?
A lighthouse on a pond?
A school, a church, a golden dome,
A chair, a bench, a lonely home?
A pepperidge tree with a joint?
A bluff on the Palisades,
Across the Hudson, a tower?
Beneath the rock, a bower,
A campanile in the glades?
A Stonehenge, a Mystery Hill,
An old courthouse, a carved rock-face?
To a landmark on an ancient place,
Or a site where people are still?
Remove not these landmarks, I say,
When they are gone,
how will man find his way?
Virginia T. Mosley
Borough Historian, Tenafly, NJ
Attitudes
How does one act
After an attack
on our Freedom?
Whom do we trust?
To whom do we listen?
As our eyes glisten,
What do we believe?
Whom do we believe?
We can say prayers.
Emotion we relieve,
Our Loving Father,
Comfort all who mourn,
As you gather your children
Into your loving arms.
Be with us in our days
As we turn to Thee.
Let us raise
Our voices in praise
of American's Freedom
and Liberty.
May we all together share
Our love and our care
For American's Freedom
and Liberty.
Virginia T. Mosley
Tenafly, New Jersey
October 3, 2001
Primary Source
Is that the way it happened
When our ancestors were alive,
Or are we repeating a story
One parent told a child?
Did you really search
Back to the first beginning?
Or did you stop
And make a hop
Because your brain was spinning.
It's easier to copy
someone else's error
Than to follow back
and live in terror.
With actuality staring us
in the face,
We step back quite a pace.
If my grandmother married
her brother,
What does that say to me?
That record is not right!
How could it possibly be?
Read the list of men
paying poll tax.
They couldn't vote
unless they did.
It also means they weren't
lax, they
Deliberately didn't pay
the Real Estate Tax.
Virginia T. Mosley
Tenafly, New Jersey
Responsibility
If we see a wisp of smoke
Where it shouldn't be,
What is our responsibility?
Were we never taught
A wisp of smoke has dangers
fraught?
On a peak far away
There's a Forest Ranger.
He can't always see
Where there is a new danger.
See a wisp of smoke
Let two girls ride horseback
to a phone.
Let the Forest Ranger know
he's not alone.
This is not a joke.
Organize help to dig a trench
Where the tree can fall,
Then bury it all.
But there still will be
quite a stench.
A wisp of smoke need not make
A forest fire if you take
Responsibility.
Virginia T. Mosley
Tenafly, New Jersey
Tenafly 4th of July, 2003
I miss the sound of
Ponies' feet,
As they clop, clop
Down the street.
I miss the noise
Of girls and boys
As they slop, slop
Down the street.
No forbidden firecrackers escape,
A loud noise they used to make.
Music blared forth
On the Fourth.
So did the day begin.
Flags flew at every home.
Hark! A siren sounds
Is it a fire or a summons
To gather at the Commons?
Will any one say
The Pledge of Allegiance today?
Or will the Routh mean
Another day of play?
At ten a.m. the only sound
A dog's bark did rebound.
We've had our fire crackers
Two night's ago. What should th eFourth
Mean to me?
I'm a member of D.A.R.
So my allegiance
Spreads far.
The fireworks seen in the air
A blast of noise and lights that glare.
The saving grace of the day of the Fourth
Is the Pledge of Allegiance
Said by all.
Virginia T. Mosley
Borough Historian
Tenafly New Jersey
July 4, 2003
Why a Library?
A man may have a dream, and
Put it down on paper, and
Plan a lot. But until that
Lot is of the land and a
House built, that dream is
Nothing more than wishful
Thinking.
A man may have a dream of
Wondrous worlds to conquer,
Of how to climb mountains
And sail the seas. But if
His dream is not girded by
Knowledge, he may try and fail.
Then his dream will fade away.
A book may be that bridge
Between dream and reality.
A book may really help
To sail the seas. A book
May be the dream of what
He wants to see, or help
Understanding other lands.
A Library may have that book
Which inspires man to greatness,
As he dreams of what is past.
What lives is in his mind
And hands.
Virginia T. Mosley
Borough Historian
Tenafly, NJ
December 2000
Collection
Citation
Virginia Mosley, “Poems by Virginia Mosley,” Digital Archives of the Tenafly Public Library, accessed April 25, 2024, https://tpl.omeka.net/items/show/218.
Embed
Copy the code below into your web page