Poem: “The Neighborly Man” by Edgar A. Guest

A Heap o’ Livin’

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American Literature – American Poetry – Edgar A. Guest – Poems by Edgar A. Guest – A Heap o’ Livin’
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The Neighborly Man

  Some are eager to be famous, some are striving
     to be great,
  Some are toiling to be leaders of their nation
     or their state,
  And in every man’s ambition, if we only understood,
  There is much that’s fine and splendid; every
     hope is mostly good.
  So I cling unto the notion that contented I
     will be
  If the men upon life’s pathway find a needed
     friend in me.

  I rather like to putter ’round the walks and
     yards of life,
  To spray at night the roses that are burned and
     browned with strife;
  To eat a frugal dinner, but always to have a
     chair
  For the unexpected stranger that my simple
     meal would share.
  I don’t care to be a traveler, I would rather be
     the one
  Sitting calmly by the roadside helping weary
     travelers on.

  I’d like to be a neighbor in the good old-fashioned way,
  Finding much to do for others, but not over
     much to say.
  I like to read the papers, but I do not yearn
     to see
  What the journal of the morning has been
     moved to say of me;
  In the silences and shadows I would live my
     life and die
  And depend for fond remembrance on some
     grateful passers-by.

  I guess I wasn’t fashioned for the brilliant
     things of earth,
  Wasn’t gifted much with talent or designed for
     special worth,
  But was just sent here to putter with life’s little
     odds and ends
  And keep a simple corner where the stirring
     highway bends,
  And if folks should chance to linger, worn and
     weary through the day,
  To do some needed service and to cheer them
     on their way.

< < < A Real Man
Roses > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – Edgar A. Guest – Poems by Edgar A. Guest – A Heap o’ Livin’

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A Heap o’ Livin’

The Neighborly Man

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