Jack Miner Poems & Books

1865 JACK MINER 1944

Jack Miner did not seek fame--fame sought him. He belongs not to one generation but to all time. His memory will live as long as men love the glories of Nature.

(Tribute by Edgar A. Guest)

When the geese come back in the Spring
And they learn that their friend has gone,
I wonder will they take to wing
And try to follow him on?

When they look for their friend again
As they've done in the years before,
Will they stay with us who remain
Or seek him the wide world o'er?

They loved him, the young and the old,
Wild geese and the whistling swan!
What then, when the flocks are told
The man who was kind is gone?

There were hunters wherever they flew,
And snares for the careless wing.
Now, they'll grieve for the friend they knew
When the birds come back in the Spring.

JACK MINER

Composed by Mr. Jack Herity, Belleville, Ontario

He must pack a heap of pleasure
Underneath his shaggy dome;
Now it's getting on to autumn
And his birds are coming home.
It must stir up all his senses
In a kind of inside grin
When he gazes down the southway and
Sees his squadrons winging in.

Must be like a mighty merchant,
When his ships come one by one,
To the harbour where there's quiet
And retreat from pirate's gun.
Pirates! That's the right name for us,
Oh, I'm guilty, same as you,
For I've often sent them tumbling,
Broken, tattered, from the blue.

I have lain for hours listening
For that throbbing cry,
And to see an old commander
Lead his flock across the sky;
But --- well there above the fireplace
You can see my guns today,
And they're mighty ornamental
Since I went down Kingsville way.

Angels used to be right common,
If I believe what I've heard say;
But a scientist will tell you
We don't have such things today.
Still I guess if we could see things
In a sort of spirit light,
We would find Jack Miner's raiment
Is a robe of shining white.