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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

The Clock of Life

In a post Mon Sep 10, 2007 on the Texas Fasola listserve, Mike Hinton quoted a poem by Barney Lee. Mr. Lee is an uncle of Sacred Harper David Lee.

The Clock of Life, by Barney Lee of Hoboken, GA

The clock of life is wound but once
And no man has the power
To tell just when the hands will stop
At late or early hour

Now is the only time you own
Live, love, work with a will
Place no faith in tomorrow
The clock may then be still

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This poem is copywrite to the estate of Robert H Smith who wrote the poem in 1932 and it was re- copywritten in 1982.

BJK

R. L. Vaughn said...

Anonymous BJK, thanks for stopping by with information on this poem. I guess Mike heard it from Mr. Lee and just thought he wrote it.

Your post encouraged me to do a google search, and I found the poem online attributed to no less than four different people. The first stanza is usually the same, and varies from there on. Can you give a citation that confirms this information, and also the possibility of contacting the Smith estate for permission to use the poem? Thanks so much.