This poem is written by Nan Walshe Gibbons on stationery from Lawrence County High School in Moulton, Alabama. It is a tribute to her son John H Gibbons, called Jack. The 1920 Census, page dated 8-9, Jan, 1920, listed John (Baby Jack) as 6 months old.
Baby Jack died of a respiratory condition when two years old.
This scan is from a photocopy. I do not know where the original resides.
Baby Jack
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Baby Hands like petals of a rose just newly born,
Baby curls like sunshine sparkling on the ripened corn,
Baby eyes like violets shining thru the morning dew,
Baby cheeks like peaches with the pinkness peeping thru.
Baby feet a-patting up and down the dim-lit hall:
“Munny, Munny, Munny!” I can hear my baby call.,
Baby arms all dimpled hold me tight, and kisses sweet
Come from lips like cherries, as our souls in rapture meet.
Baby smile like moonlight rippling o’er the summer sea;
In this world no laughter half so sweet as yours to me.
Baby face uplifted for a precious “goodnight” kiss,
Surely God in Heaven made no higher, holier bliss.
But the night is dreary, long and weary is the day,
And my heart is lonely; for my baby’s gone away
Up beyond the dawn-clouds, in a world all bright and fair,
In the land of Spirits; he is waiting for me there.
Waiting! thought consoling!.for this world is hard and cold,
Life is sometimes bitter; but my heart will not grow old,
For, beyond the azure, e’en tho’ I am here alone,
My baby’s praying for me up before the Great White Throne.
Nan Walshe Gibbons