good luck kisses you
quick, flies away – bad Luck sits
and brings her knitting
Good luck is the gayest of all gay girls,
Long in one place she will not stay;
Back from your brow she strokes the curls,
Kisses you quick and flies away.
But Madame Bad Luck soberly comes
And stays, – no fancy has she for flitting, –
Snatches of true love-songs she hums,
And sits by your bed, and brings her knitting.
Good And Bad Luck by John Hay as printed in The Norton book of Light Verse edited by Russell Baker, New York, Norton, 1986.
At age 23, John Hay, graduate of Brown University and native of Illinois, was selected to be one of the two men who made up the entire White House staff of Abraham Lincoln.
Mr. Hay used that line on his resume to create a career in Government as a diplomat, Ambassador to Great Britain and Secretary of State in the McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt administration.
I was interested to read the other day that during the Civil War, Mr. Hay took a break from the White House in January, 1863 and went to, where else, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
The Hilton Head / Port Royal Sound area had been built into a base of Military Operations for the Union forces in the area and a 1,000 bed hospital had been built on the beach.
The imagery of the words in this short poem of Mr. Hay’s was too good to pass up.
No Haiku For You 