Lyrics of Life: "The Little Valleys" (poetry)

1921

Lyrics of Life
By Douglas Malloch

THE LITTLE VALLEYS

The little valleys lie so far
From where the busy cities are
That men may live and men may die
And never find them where they lie,
The little valleys near the sky.

Shut in by plain and sturdy hills
That feed the grasses with their rills,
The little valleys do not seem
A part of all life's roaring stream—
But just a landscape and a dream.

A few green acres, that is all,
The mountains like a garden wall
In quiet peace to shut them in,
To shut away the dirt, the din.
And all the world of noisy sin.

And, oh, I wish that weary feet
Could find the little valleys sweet—
And, oh, I wish the weary heart
That feels the bruises of the mart
Could find this little world apart!

"God's gardens," so I call the vales
Up yonder by the mountain trails;
And you who cry for heaven's aid
You will not find it, I'm afraid,
Where man his busy world has made.

You must come tramping over hills.
Come follow singing whip-poor-wills,
Must journey long and clamber high
To where God's hidden gardens lie—
The little valleys near the sky.

—Mountain Democrat, Placerville, California, October 29, 1921, page 6.