Poem my dad emailed to me.

If I were sending my boy afar
To live and labor where strangers are,
I should hold him close till the time to go,
Telling him things which he ought to know;
I should whisper counsel and caution wise,
Hinting of dangers which might arise,
And tell him the things I have learned from life,
Of its bitter pain and its cruel strife
And the sore temptations which men beset,
And then add this: “Boy, don’t forget
When your strength gives out and your hope grows dim,
Your father will help if you come to him.”

If I were sending a boy away,

I should hold him close, on the parting day,

And give him my trust. Through thick and thin
I should tell him I counted on him to win,
To keep his word at whatever cost,
To play the man though his fight be lost.
But beyond all that I should whisper low:
“If trouble comes, let your father know;
Come to him, son, as you used to do
When you were little—he’ll see you through.
I am trusting you in a distant land.
You trust your father to understand.

“Trust me wherever you chance to be,
Know there is nothing to hide from me,
Tell me it all—your tale of woe,
The sting of failure that hurts you so.
Never, whatever your plight might be,
Think it something to hide from me;
Come to me first in your hour of need,
Come though you know that my heart will bleed!
Boy, when the shadows of trouble fall,
Come to your father first of all.”
~ ~ Collected Verse of Edgar A. Guest ~ 1934