Saturday, June 30, 2012

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.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Blue Light

Rippled aqua and blue
Light and water,
Waves woven
Like a basket 
Made of rain,
Drops drifting
In time.

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Watermelon

An old rhyme:

Watermelon, watermelon 
Nickel or dime,
Eat the meat, pickle the rind.
Save the seeds to plantin' time.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Sunflower


Lightblossom
Mossolbyhgil
Daybloom
Moolbyad
Giantsmileyface
Ecafyelimstnaig
Delightfulmystery
Yretsymlufthgiled
Sunflower
Rewolfnus

Tuesday, June 26, 2012

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!

Monday, June 25, 2012

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. 

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Wheel

Spoked wheel
Speaks of Yesteryear 
Simpler times
Slower days
Salient Spokes
Still, solemn, silent
Spokes speak still.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Thai Rose

Oriental
Yellow silk
Hot sky melts
Stains edges of
Soft satin
With crimson

Friday, June 22, 2012

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.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Painted Daisy

Dew on daisies;
Drink for day's heat.
Watercolor 

It's the way He's
Always painted daisies. 
Watercolor 

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

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

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

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.

Monday, June 18, 2012

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.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

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.


Saturday, June 16, 2012

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.




Friday, June 15, 2012

Thursday, June 14, 2012

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.


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

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! 

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

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!

Monday, June 11, 2012

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.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

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.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Nodding Thistle


Cool dude,
Long and lanky,
Setting out 
'Cross campus 
Sporting freshly-dyed do
Awesome Possum!

Friday, June 8, 2012

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Large-Leaved Coneflower

Graceful dancer
Bathed with sunshine.
Yellow sequins 
Make your crown.

Dance the lilting
Prairie wind-song,
Underneath the
Summer sky.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

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.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Monday, June 4, 2012

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.

Sunday, June 3, 2012

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.

Saturday, June 2, 2012

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.

Friday, June 1, 2012

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.