Amanuensis Monday - Grandma Hill's Poetry, week 1

A PLACE TO KEEP YOUR SECRETS

 

Build for yourself a strong box.

Fashion each part with care.

Fit it with hasps and padlocks,

Put all your troubles in there.

Hide in there all your failures

And each bitter cup you quaff,

Sock all heartaches within it,

Then sit on the lid and laugh.

 

Tell no one of its contents

Never its secrets share

Drop in your worries and cares

Hide them forever there.

The world will never dream half

If you fasten the top down securely

Then sit on the lid and laugh.

 

Nancy Jane Wiley Hill (1875-1960) was always writing something.  Many of those poems are now in the possession of her granddaughter Shirley Kern.  Shirley, with the help of her sister-in-law Ruth Ormsby, transcribed these poems in 1996 for a Hill-Ormsby-Kern family reunion.  I am going to post many of these poems so that they may be enjoyed by all. 

These are copyright 1996 and reprinted with permission.