American poet
When first we pay the price of wisdom
With innocence,
We are too shocked to understand.
Then later must we sit and wonder
Whether it was worth the cost
To know what every one must some day know.
And knowing, ever after be afraid,
And filled with shame.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Shame", A Soliloquy of Life
Divinely blessed is rose or man
That answers to love's whispered plan,
And gladly owns it paradise
To be love's perfect sacrifice.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Lady and the Rose"
Fear, the strength of earth's religions, gripping every living soul,
Was a monstrous human error for the making of men whole.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Caelestis"
And death, that sits in marble silence cold,
Will furnish hope to those who may behold
The meaning in the everlasting change
Of all that dies, returning, wondrous strange.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Quest for God"
The Royal Road to Knowledge, all may win,
Who seek the source of Life in everything.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Veritas Vincit"
Lo, the night is love's best gift,
With the cares of day a-drift.
Moon and stars, the draping light
Of the love-wreathed couch of night.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Diana"
The kindest souls are ever
Those who sin and suffer most,
And who thoughtfully endeavor
To forget whereof men boast.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"When the Gentle Christ Was Tracing"
Life is the tamer of the wild beast of humanity.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Childhood", A Soliloquy of Life
Tears are the Soul's baptism of cleansing.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Song of the Soul"
Some hold love to be for conquest, both of persons and of things,
But supreme love, all unheeding, straight forgets the gift it brings.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Caelestis"
Love is the Soul's exquisite vibrations....
Love is the Soul at song.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Song of the Soul"
The Soul can hear the violets grow!
It can hear the throbbing heart of God!
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Song of the Soul"
For a love in the sky, you must well understand,
Keeps up an unending desire,
And a moment down here is eternity there
To the lover who seeks to aspire.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Birth", A Soliloquy of Life
All things bend to help the man
Who seeks to harmonize
His own free will with nature's plan,
And prove himself most wise.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Destiny"
When the toiler bends and labors till his sweat turns into pearls,
'Tis a nobler decoration than the coronets of earls.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Caelestis"
The queen whose beauty does the gaze transfix,
Adorns herself with pallid crucifix.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Quest for God"
Religion, like all things, begins with self,
And naught is known, until one knows himself.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Veritas Vincit"
He who strives for happiness is a fool.
The wise man makes happiness for another.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Song of the Soul"
The fine art of Life is to make
Another Soul vibrate with a song of joy.
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"The Song of the Soul"
Not in tears should we pray,
But in hope, smiling bright,
When the glory of day
Has forgotten the night!
EDWIN LEIBFREED
"Pray--Not When in Tears"