ETHELENE DYER JONES
(1930-- )
Retired Teacher; High school librarian;
Adjunct professor, college English
Newspaper columnist, freelance magazine writer
and lifelong poet
Charter member and past president of
Georgia State Poetry Society
Winner of the Evelyn Cole Peters Poetry Award,
National Society,
Daughters of the American Revolution
Milledgeville, Georgia

GATHERING PATIENCE


("Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." James 1: 3-4 King James Version, The Bible)

Could I gather patience
As I reap fall's bounteous store,
I'd gladly claim this virtue,
Keep much, and gather more

To last through days of trial
When my forbearance runs thin;
Then my store of gathered patience
Would make me strong again.

Or, if like stored-up sunshine,
My patience would suffice,
I'd never have to fear cold days
Or break through hardships' ice.

Even as I fantasize
That patience will hold out,
I know that gathering enough
Will be a daily doubt

Until I come to realize
This truth so plain to see:
Patience is how I take adversity
And accept God's strength for me.


Ethelene Dyer Jones