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H. Keith Rinehart was one of those teachers that a student could never forget.  He had a smile for each person that came through the door of his ninth grade class, and great expectations for them as he exposed many of them to poetry for the first time in their lives.  Each day he would write poetry on the blackboard and expect us to copy it into a spiral notebook, AND he expected us to memorize and recite 400 lines of poetry that semester in order to receive an A on our report cards.  After much grumbling, each student set out to accomplish that goal; and nearly everyone was successful that semester in the Spring of 1955.  Many learned things they had never been taught by reading, writing, and reciting some of this poetry.  You see, Mr. Rinehart was a Presbyterian minister at a small church on the weekends.  And threaded through the poetry, very carefully chosen by him, were lessons in life, prayers to God, and subtle moral information.  Our school owed much to Mr. Rinehart and this page is offered as a THANK YOU, even though he died many years ago.  The world needs more teachers like him.

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Here are some of the poems he had us learn.................

 
Treasure

Into my heart's treasury
        I slipped a coin
That time cannot take
        Nor thief purloin, --

Oh, better than the minting
        Of a gold-crowned king
Is the safe kept memory
        Of a lovely thing.
                 --Sara Teasdale

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Worth While

It's easy enough to be pleasant
        When life flows by like a song;
But the man worth while
        Is the man who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.

For the test of the heart is trouble
        And it always comes with the years;
And the smile that is worth
        The praises of earth
Is the smile that shines throught the tears.
                    --Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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Keep On Keepin' On

If the day looks kinder gloomy
        And your chances kinder slim,
If the situation's puzzlin'
        And the prospects awful grim,
If perplexities keep pressin'
        Till hope is nearly gone,
Just bristle up and grit your teeth
        And keep on keepin' on.

Frettin' never wins a fight
        And fumin' never pays;
There's no use in broodin'
        In those pessimistic ways;
Smile just kinder cheerfully
        Though hope is nearly gone
And bristle up and grit your teeth
        And keep on keepin' on.
                        --Unknown

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My Creed

I would be true, for there are those who trust me;
I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.

I would be friend of all -- the foe, the friendless;
I would be giving and forget the gift;
I would be humble for I know my weakness;
I would look up - and laugh - and love - and lift.
                        --Howard Arnold Walter

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Hills Ahead

The hills ahead look hard and steep and high
And often we behold them with a sigh;
But as we near them, level grows the road.
We find on every slope with every load
The climb is not so steep, the top so far,
The hills ahead look harder than they are.

And so it is with trouble,
        though they seem so great
That men complain and fear, and hesitate;
Less difficult the journey than we dreamed
It never proves as hard as once it seemed,
There never comes a task, a hill a day,
But as we near it -- easier goes the way.
                                --Douglas Mallock

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Myself

I have to live with myself, and so
I want to be fit for myself to know,
I want to be able as days go by
Always to look myself straight in the eye.
I don't want to stand with the setting sun
And hate myself for the things I've done.
I want to go out with my head erect;
I want to deserve all men's respect;
But here in the struggle for fame and pelf
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to look at myself and know
That I'm bluster and bluff and empty-show.
I never can fool myself and so --
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self respecting, conscience free.
                          --Edgar A. Guest

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