The Sound of Summer!

When I think of the summer season I remember hiking in the hills around Mount Tamalpais in Marin County area with my sister, Sheri when we were children. Sometimes we would also take the bus to San Francisco and watch the unsudal charactors standing on the corner of Third & Howard. Many times there were several of them at once stating they were Jesus Christ; being children, we were of course confused, so we would ask them, 'How can you all be Jesus Christ?., and they would all just laugh. Those foound memories, along with one of my favorite poets, Elizabeth Akers Allen, who wrote the poem, Rock Me to Sleep, always bring back the loving times I felt as a child. I have provided a copy of the poem for my readers below. I hope all of you like it as much as I do.

Rock Me to Sleep

Elizabeth Akers Allen

1832 –1911

Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight,

Make me a child again just for tonight!

Mother, come back from the echoless shore,

Take me again to your heart as of yore;

Kiss from my forehead the furrows of care,

Smooth the few silver threads out of my hair;

Over my slumbers your loving watch keep;—

Rock me to sleep, mother, — rock me to sleep!

Backward, flow backward, O tide of the years!

I am so weary of toil and of tears,—

Toil without recompense, tears all in vain,—

Take them, and give me my childhood again!

I have grown weary of dust and decay,—

Weary of flinging my soul-wealth away;

Weary of sowing for others to reap;—

Rock me to sleep, mother — rock me to sleep!

Tired of the hollow, the base, the untrue,

Mother, O mother, my heart calls for you!

Many a summer the grass has grown green,

Blossomed and faded, our faces between:

Yet, with strong yearning and passionate pain,

Long I tonight for your presence again.

Come from the silence so long and so deep;—

Rock me to sleep, mother, — rock me to sleep!

Over my heart, in the days that are flown,

No love like mother-love ever has shone;

No other worship abides and endures,—

Faithful, unselfish, and patient like yours:

None like a mother can charm away pain

From the sick soul and the world-weary brain.

Slumber’s soft calms o’er my heavy lids creep;—

Rock me to sleep, mother, — rock me to sleep!

Come, let your brown hair, just lighted with gold,

Fall on your shoulders again as of old;

Let it drop over my forehead tonight,

Shading my faint eyes away from the light;

For with its sunny-edged shadows once more

Haply will throng the sweet visions of yore;

Lovingly, softly, its bright billows sweep;—

Rock me to sleep, mother, — rock me to sleep!

Mother, dear mother, the years have been long

Since I last listened your lullaby song:

Sing, then, and unto my soul it shall seem

Womanhood’s years have been only a dream.

Clasped to your heart in a loving embrace,

With your light lashes just sweeping my face,

Never hereafter to wake or to weep;—

Rock me to sleep, mother, — rock me to sleep!corner of Third & Howard. When several of them at once stated they were Jesus Christ, we of course were confused so we would ask them, ‘how can you all be Jesus Christ?’, Please enjoy your summer!

Dr. Bonnie Bullust laughed. Those found memories, along with the poem, Rock Me to Sleep, by Elizabeth Akers Allen, always bring back the loving times I felt as a child. I have provided a copy of the poem for my readers below. I hope you all like it as mu