---
title: Improvement Era
description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930.
authors:
  - Townsend, J. L.
collections:
  - periodicals
tags:
  - magazine
  - improvement-era
periodical: Improvement Era
volume: 8
number: 1
published: 1904-11
publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations
publisher_place: Salt Lake City
language: en
type: magazine
reference: 'J. L. Townsend, "Thought Waves: A Poem," *Improvement Era* 8, no. 1 (November 1904): 48.'
source:
  url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0801unse
  transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers.
  identifier: improvementera0801unse
start_page: 48
end_page: 48
rights:
  status: public-domain
  basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1904-11)
  source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera0801unse
  publication_year: 1904
  note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1904, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright.
---

# Thought Waves: A Poem

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48                             IMPROVEMENT ERA

       "'Where have you been?' asked Brother Joseph and the guard
of me as I entered the house.
     " *0h, out for a little exercise,' I answered.

      ''And a smile of incredulity passed over their faces, as they
observed how wet my clothes were.           But they never suspected from
my happified countenance the struggle through which I had passed."
     Salt   Lake City, Utah.

                               THOUGHT WAVES.
                            {For the Improvement    Era)

                    I   wonder if beautiful memories
                        Of dear ones of long ago.
                    Come borne on the wings of their loving thoughts,
                      Because I have loved them so?
                    Some telepathic or message wave
                      They waft o'er the bounds of space,
                    That brings me the tones of an absent voice
                        And joy of an absent face!
                    For often I think of the golden hours
                      Long hidden in memory's haze,
                    And think of the friendly and cherished ones
                        Beloved in my youthful days;
                    And silently, softly, one seems to come
                      Across from the mystical land,
                    Eenewing the glow of an early love
                        And touch of a vanished hand!
                    So, ever these beautiful memories.
                      Of dear ones of long ago,
                    Are bringing the forms of my loved to me.
                        Because I have loved them so!
                    And oft they return from the vanished ones
                        Who entered their heavenly rest,
                    And bring me    the dear, sweet thoughts again
                        Of those I have loved the best.

     Payson, Utah
                                                        —   J. L.   TOWNSEND.