They ain't much, seen from day to day- <br />The big elm tree across the way, <br />The church spire, an' the meetin' place <br />Lit up by many a friendly face. <br />You pass 'em by a dozen times <br />An' never think o' them in rhymes, <br />Or fit for poet's singin'. Yet <br />They're all the things you can't forget; <br />An' they're the things you'll miss some day <br />If ever you should go away. <br /> <br />The people here ain't much to see- <br />Jes' common folks like you an' me, <br />Doin' the ordinary tasks <br />Which life of everybody asks: <br />Old Dr. Green, still farin' 'round <br />To where his patients can be found, <br />An' Parson Hill, serene o' face, <br />Carryin' God's message every place, <br />An' Jim, who keeps the grocery store- <br />Yet they are folks you'd hunger for. <br /> <br />They seem so plain when close to view- <br />Bill Barker, an' his brother too, <br />The Jacksons, men of higher rank <br />Because they chance to run the bank, <br />Yet friends to every one round here, <br />Quiet an' kindly an' sincere, <br />Not much to sing about or praise, <br />Livin' their lives in modest ways- <br />Yet in your memory they'd stay <br />If ever you should go away. <br /> <br />These are things an' these the men <br />Some day you'll long to see again. <br />Now it's so near you scarcely see <br />The beauty o' that big elm tree, <br />But some day later on you will <br />An' wonder if it's standin' still, <br />An' if the birds return to sing <br />An' make their nests there every spring. <br />Mebbe you scorn them now, but they <br />Will bring you back again some day.<br /><br />Edgar Albert Guest<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-things-you-can-t-forget/
