EARLY VENTURES INTO VERSE
(Most quite unfortunate )
Circa 3/19,/1959

To think is to drink; to know is to grow
The low climb slow Have far to go
And being lower climb much slower
No jets, at least not yet.

From the wine that we drink
Come the thoughts we think.

A friend understands
Employs gentle hands
Makes few harsh demands
And beside you
Stands.

So what have I earned from all I have learned
But a head full of dim confusion
And what have I wrought from what I've been taught? 
Blank facts and sensed illusions.

In sampling the fruit of the world
We often don't spit out the bitter grape
But then when it has made us ill--
Then how we vomit it up!

The deer drinks and being filled moves on.
The lion kills; but not again till food is gone.
But, fearing his tomorrows will be lean,
Man strips the bush until no fruit is seen.

*Let us believe that she is happy
Now that siege of pain is done
Here agony is ended
Her ecstasy begun.

Still the spirit of her lingers
In chambers of the heart
Where the echos of her laughter
Linger on slow to depart

(*Written on the death of Aunt Theresa, Uncle Ray's wife)

Gene Pinkney

Uploaded, November 2019