Jim's Love Of Poetry

An inscription on the monument honoring Jim at Carthage, Texas, talks about the goal of a singer. Everyone assumes Jim wrote it. He did not. He adapted it from the following poem (author unknown):

And if a lowly singer dries one tear,
Or soothes one humble human heart in pain,
Be sure his homely verse to God is dear,
And not one stanza has been sung in vain.

As he often did with song lyrics and poems he read, Jim made subtle changes that gave the words more meaning or personalized them:

If I, a lowly singer, dries one tear,
Or soothes one humble human heart in pain,
Then my homely verse to God is dear,
And not one stanza has been sung in vain.

Jim read books on poetry, and carried one with him on the road. He said it gave him song ideas. On his daily radio show he even featured what he called a "poetry corner." One favorite of his -- though not well known -- is the following. Ironically, it even mentions a man named Jim:

AROUND THE CORNER

Around the corner I have a friend,
In this great city that has no end;
Yet days go by and weeks rush on,
And before I know it a year is gone,
And I never see my old friend's face,
For Life is a swift and terrible race.
He knows I like him just as well
As in the days when I rang his bell
And he rang mine. We were younger then,
And now we are busy, tired men:
Tired with playing a foolish game,
Tired with trying to make a name.
"Tomorrow," I say, "I will call on Jim,
Just to show that I'm thinking of him."
But tomorrow comes -- and tomorrow goes,
And the distance between us grows and grows
Around the corner! -- yet miles away...
"Here's a telegram, sir..."
"Jim died today."
And that's what we get, and deserve in the end:
Around the corner, a vanished friend.

--Charles Hanson Towne

 

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