Raymond R. Gallagher 

Navasota, TX, USA

Ray is a journeyman mechanical construction worker. He composed stories and poems at the hospital bedside of a daughter who for years was threatened with blindness. Mostly based on his boyhood spent on a farm in Michigan, some of his poems have been compiled into a book called The Ballad of Mich-o-tta-wa. A mythical Indian Chief is a gentle, wise and knowledgeable master of magic and the mystery of life. The book is available for $25.00 U.S. Ray hopes to someday see the story as a movie or video. He is currently working on some children's stories.

To Live

When from the depths
Of the dormant cells
Spring forth the eagerness
To survive

"Yes we were joined in holy nailhood
while the symphony of hammers
played 
and the saws sang out in varying tones
while the windows and door jambs
were made"

"Piece by piece we were carefully
placed
with the siding around and around
till finally one day with the shingles
array
we were hid from the sun and the
ground"

"So there we stood
in grand adulthood
starting our final stands
holding outside walls
dividing spacious rooms
now part of a dreamer's plan"

"That night we had a party
to celebrate all new nailhoods
though some were of different variety
we were all akin to the woods"
 

"Lazily I drifted down the river
with the falls now far behind
Was my destination the ocean?
I really don't mind"

"For by the banks of the river
on the trees as I passed by
each tiny leaf in waving
seemed saluting I"

"Each with its own rare beauty
each with a special hue
each with a marvelous duty
to make a setting come true"

"Oh what a beautiful wonderful world
so proud of it am I
if only a way to thank it
for letting part of it be I"

"Yes, I see all things now as I am
a speck on nature's sea
born to a special season
master planned by He"

"Timed to a destination
to live how long who knows
but to be a part of a setting
as I, a leaf that grows"