12/26/07

For Christmas my grandmother gave me the book, Early Moon, a compilation of poems by Carl Sandburg. Inside, written on a yellowed page, I found this quaint inscription in faded ink:

Dear Ray,

"We give all we have to give
That the name may live longer than the man.

We live only for glory
To gild our lives for a moment's span.

Yet we who forget so soon
The loveliness of a scarlet leaf,
Find it strange that trees should wait
So long, for glory that is so brief."

S. Bateman

May the poems in this book give you joy - - - as much pleasures as they can.
For you have given me much Joy in our friendship.

Here's luck,

G. Lenor Arnold
"Kansas"
1931

3 comments:

Fire For Life said...

Isn't it wonderful to recieve an old book with writing in it? I love finding treasured little notes inside the browned pages of decades weathered book.

Anonymous said...

superb!:)

emelina said...

writing in books is the best art.