Precious Baby Hands

I can do it, Mommy.

Let me try it now.

My hands are big. 

My hands are super strong!

Let me do it, Mommy.

Blue Light

Rippled aqua and blue

Light and water,

Waves woven

Like a basket 

Made of rain,

Drops drifting

In time.

Watermelon

An old rhyme:

Watermelon, watermelon 

Nickel or dime,

Eat the meat, pickle the rind.

Save the seeds to plantin' time.

Sunflower

Lightblossom

Mossolbyhgil

Daybloom

Moolbyad

Giantsmileyface

Ecafyelimstnaig

Delightfulmystery

Yretsymlufthgiled

Sunflower

Rewolfnus

Young at Art

Red paint splashed on yellow

First day of kindergarten

An apron and a child sized easel

Bright white paper

Joy Joy Joy!

Bottles of primary colors 

Red, yellow, blue, green, orange

Freedom to express, freedom to be messy

Freedom to create.

Joy Joy Joy!

Crystal

Minerals, water, soil, heat, 

Molecules of time

Brought together

By the designer of diamonds and emeralds,

The craftsman of mountains and stony cliffs,

The inventor of stalactites and stalagmites,

The creator of desert sands and salty seas. 

Wheel

Spoked wheel

Speaks of Yesteryear 

Simpler times

Slower days

Salient Spokes

Still, solemn, silent

Spokes speak still.

Thai Rose

Oriental

Yellow silk

Hot sky melts

Stains edges of

Soft satin

With crimson

Sill

Depot waiting

Waiting, waiting in the drying sun.

Train is late. Can you hear it?

Thundering train

Wait, wait.

Chairs waiting

Waiting, waiting in the blistering wind.

Ticket counter, bell?

Ghostly passengers listening

Wait, wait.

Window waiting

Waiting, waiting in the hot afternoon sun.
To be opened, to breathe,

To hear a train whistle.

Wait, wait.

Painted Daisy

Dew on daisies;

Drink for day's heat.

Watercolor 

It's the way He's

Always painted daisies. 

Watercolor 

Basket Weaver's Hands

 Fing - ers - push - and - pull                  

 man - i - pu - lat - ing - reeds - into - space - s

 cre - a - ting - a - sim - ple - bas - ket

 a - beau - ti - ful - tool - to - serve - for - years. 

Sea of Grass

Grasses and wildflowers 

Blow, Bend, Nod

In the wind

A song - a dance

Made of heat and melted sunshine

Like the movement of waves on the ocean

Like the undulating mystery of life,

The wind mixes the sky into the trees,

Which merge with the grasses

And mother the land.

Barbed Wire

Barbed wire holds cows in and people out

But life cannot be stopped by wire.

Life comes and crosses barriers; 

Creeps under fences,

Climbs over barricades.

Colors

I see the color of ocean waves,
The green of grass, the shade of leaves, 
The blue of sky.
I see the red of sunrise, the yellow of sunlight, 
The cerise of sunset, 
The white of moonlight.
I see the color of peach skin.
I see the aqua of rain. 
I see the orange of orange sherbet summer dreams.

Ferris Wheel

Little pink caterpillar

At the summer fair

Ride the grand Ferris wheel 

A-spinning in the air

Bright sunny smiling circle

Trimmed in sparkly red,

Turning, twirling, topsy-turvy

In Mama's flower bed.

Jubilee

I laughed when I saw it

In spite of myself!

Zinnias

A garden can be lots of work

It may be lonely too,

Though not if there are zinnias

To shout "hello" to you.

Rest a while from working

Leaning on your hoe,

See them bright and cheerful

Brightening up each row.

Basket Thistle

Geometric wonder

Design of living lace

Waiting, waiting,

For the right bright day

To wave purple petals

Like flags,

Calling all Goldfinches

To the feast! 

Remainders / Reminders

Last summer's drought 

Left fence lines shrouded in remainders,

Reminders that 

All of us are like the grass,

The grass withers and fades away.

The glory of a man 

Is like a flower

That withers in the sun

And falls;

But the word of our God 

Endures forever!

Colours

Sunshine turned to food.

Vitamins and minerals.

Nutrition wrapped in shapes and colors to draw us

God could have painted all veggies green, all red, all yellow.

Yet he thought of purple eggplant, 

Red tomatoes, white cauliflower,

Yellow squash, pink crowder peas.

Orange pumpkins, red and green watermelons, 

Green broccoli and red cabbages.

How grand, His hand 

In the garden.

Okra Blossom

Swirled against her robe of palest yellow silk

Queen Okra lifts a scepter of garnets

Thus from lowly beginnings

Beauty and power came to reign inside the garden gate.

Nodding Thistle

Cool dude,

Long and lanky,

Setting out 

'Cross campus 

Sporting freshly-dyed do

Awesome Possum!

Zinnia

Some colors are of themselves 

Adequate proof of God. 

Large-Leaved Coneflower

Graceful dancer

Bathed with sunshine.

Yellow sequins 

Make your crown.

Dance the lilting

Prairie wind-song,

Underneath the

Summer sky.

Prairie Bride

You grace the dusty roadside

Covered with pearls

Like the bodice of a bride's dress

Your maids beside you wearing green satin.

Pearls bursting in the sunshine

Each becoming suddenly

Like baby's breath in the bride's bouquet,

A tiny bright white blossom.

Your blooms moonlight white, pure white, 

And perfumed softly 

Like the sheer net of the bride's veil

And her taffeta petticoats.

Summer snowflakes, holding each other

Each part of the whole.

Like the lace that trims the bride's skirts

And her satin wedding veil.

Butterfly

Wings ablur

Spicebush swallowtail

Dances on Bee balm.

First House

Thirty-nine years ago

The groom brought his bride here

To their first little home.

Sweet memories well up inside

When she passes.

Thirty-nine years ago

A blue Oldsmobile rested here 

Under the carport.

Orange berries grew on the bush outside 

The bedroom window.

Thirty-nine years ago 

Their first child learned to crawl here.

They picnicked in back yard

By blue iris and a pink rose bush.

Three-toed tree toads made poetry.

Thirty-nine years ago

Love and laughter lived here. 

Friendship came inside.

She stops in passing and remembers, 

Another time, long ago, just yesterday.

Lillian, Gift Tied With a Bow

Her eyes arrest me,

Hold me

Soft brown,

Kind yet piercing.

Make me wish I knew her thoughts.

What she must know! 

Her mouth

Tipsied by time

Sweet and smiling

Judging by lines 

That smile was frequent - Cardinals

Perch on a happy heart.

Trumpet Creeper

Trumpets of nectar 

Hummingbird goblets.

Blossom-shaped summer sunsets

*****

Orange-red bugles

Wind instruments

Blaring their silent musical notes

From fencerows, 

Telephone poles and 

Sides of old barns.

Apples

Apple blossoms 

Now green fruit

Transformed

Like a caterpillar 

Into a  

Butterfly.

Juice-filled orbs

Ripening in the June sun

Blushed with pink of your 

By-gone flowers.