WHEN JOY BELLS PEAL

There is a place -- when our toils are over --
Where we all will be in clover,

Just around the next bend -- or maybe next year --
Like that World War II song, "The White Cliffs of Dover,"

We now see, "Tomorrow when the world is free,"
Still many, somewhere -- perhaps you or even me,

Are struggling with injustice and racial oppression --
Lack of love is the greatest nightmare that I see,

Let the milk of human kindness be our primary caregiver --
We're really not, "Way Down Upon the Suwannee River" --

A girl fills my dreams -- "Georgia On My Mind" --
Like the "Old Folks at Home" -- Stephen Foster did deliver

Recollections to bring nostalgia -- "Oh! Susannah" might hold the key --
"The Old Oaken Bucket," -- "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" --

"Long Ago and Far Away" will warm our hearts until the day
"When They Ring Those Golden Bells for You and Me."

                                                       by D. Edgar Murray 05/08/2000.