Oriental Surprise!

A walk on a rainy day in my overgrown garden

I find a busy street in Japan

Filled with

Bright-colored parasols

Open and raised toward the sky,

Protecting the ladies' high-combed hair,

Powdered perfect skin

Emerald green kimonos

From sun and wind.

Zinnias-

A song of color and shapes. 

Message

In the dry    fence lines,

Tangled in old barbed wire,

Strung between wooden posts,

Cut and set decades ago

By a rancher's roughened hands,

I see the summer's growth 

Drying flower heads, 

Drying brown seeds

In wind and heat

Amongst it all 

A Valentine 

Gray against 

Sallowing 

Green.

Lakeside

Above the lake

I sit to watch the wind play with the water.

My chair a rock, 

A great gray giant rock

A rock that seems to be poised there waiting

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

Flat on top, smooth, heavy

Just a shore rock waiting for a giant child 

With his giant father,

To come along on a summer afternoon

To chose it -- this rock

To smooth it on his giant shirttail 

Feel it in his giant hand and 

Whip it through giant fingers 

Out across the lake's surface,

Count it with a grand giant thundering voice 

As it tucks the water and skips

One, two, three, four, five,

Five times! 

Five giant skips! 

Oh!

Oh!

I should move! 

Comfort

The fog is a white shawl

That wraps around trees, 

Fills empty bird nests,

Hides in spaces between 

Strands of barbed wire,

Cuddles fence posts,

Squeezes into mailboxes,

Under farm trucks,

Blankets rolls of waiting hay

In silence and peace.

Simple Joy

Struggling up from the woodland floor

A gentian reaches for a bit of sunshine

Amid the fall shadows.

Did God know I would walk by?

Did He know I would 

Brush aside a tear

Replace it with a smile

To be greeted with such a perfect pink

And so sweet and simple

A reminder of joy?

Web Design

Morning light rest on strands

  Of gossamer

Woven threads of silk

Dew like tear-drops drip down

Silently

Night was long,

Night was damaging

Web designer hides from the sunlight

In the center.

Paperback

Bark curls 

Thin like pages of a 

Sappy paperback

Abandoned on a park bench,

Scorned and flapping in protest;

Fighting with the wind

Page edges turning on themselves

Rain soaked, weather dried, 

 Puckered and twisted in agony

At the rejection

Blue

 Where Ocean Stops 

And 
Sky Starts

I cannot Tell,

But Know they Never Touch,

Yet always Touch 

Sky to Sea,

Sea to Sky,

Blue on Blue,

Of the Same Stuff.

Bright Smile

From the crackled mulch of fallen leaves, 

Brown blanket of sticks and soil,

Springs a twelve-petaled piece of sunshine.

For a simple heart that still believes,

God faithful in spreading joy will,

Send a smile from a flower's face to mine.  

Home Sweet Home

Whose door is this?

Who passes here, in and out, 

Over the wooden threshold?

Through winter's cold, who holes up here?

Who sleeps on a summer day,

In this place of refuge,

Waiting for night to gallivant?

What creature seeks asylum here

Squirreling away stores for hungry days,

Stolen pecans, walnuts, hickory nuts?

Who calls home 

This small hollow in a lofty tree?

Roses Red

Red ruffles like square 

Dancers' skirts and petticoats,

Green leaves like ribbons in flying hair,

Buds like red rubies at lady's throats.

Garden path is a promenade.

Sunflower

Like a tiny world all its own

A sunflower stands along the roadside

Its center brown and crusty like the soil

Sprouting minuscule palm trees 

Tiny cactus topped with yellow flowers

Its sunlit petals like the sun's own rays.

Rain Born

A thunderstorm rumbles across the land

Rain, blessed rain, begins 

First a drip, then a patter, than a drum-roll

Next a crash of cymbals, 

Then a boom of a bass drum,

A splash, a crash, a pouring,

Streaming, splattering, running, gushing

cacophony of rhythm, 

A crescendo of percussion

A kettle drum's poom, poom, poom!

Then a steady downpour

Rain and rain, drizzle, now drip

Drop

Drip

Drop...drip

Clouds move.Wind blows.

Sun comes smiling over the garden

Drying stems grow plump with water
Leaves cast a new green

Fresh, alive a zinnia opens and glows

Waves

In the sunshine and breeze.

Garden Basket

Producing still, 

My garden has survived both heat and drought.

It teaches me what perseverance is about.

It gives us food to eat and food for soul.

All a garden does is make us whole.

Morning Prayer

Thank you God for watering me,

Thanks for my vines so strong,

For a place to cling in the sunlight,

For tendrils that curl to hold on.

For this gate in the shade of a mulberry tree

Where people pass by and through,

Where my colors bring joy to others 

And cause praise to rise to you.

Thank you for bees and butterflies.

Thank you for children's noses

That visit me here and love me 

As they do the prettiest posies.

Thanks for rain that falls softly.

Thank you for peace in the night

When I close my heart and rest from my work

And wait for next morning's light.

Amethyst

Purple rose,

Plum?

Mulberry?

How can I describe 

Your petals of silk?

Your soft swirls?

Orchid?

Violet?

Eggplant?

Lavender?

Lilac?

How about "mauve"-u-lous? 

Raindrops

New leaves in 

September speak hope.

What drought and

Grasshoppers had stolen

Springs again.

God answers prayers;

Rain falls on thirsty land,

Brown grass greens 

New leaves sprout.

Like faith leaves,

Evidence.

Watercolor

From  under water

Ships, sails, and spar,

Ropes and wire 

Are distorted,

Contorted,

Transported

Into a Picasso style

Watercolor

Painting of a

Fantastical dragonfly.

Valley Grapes

Grapes of Temecula Valley

Sweeten in the afternoon sun

Thrive in the sea's salty air.

Each purple orb a wealth 

Seeds wrapped in juice

The land flows with plenty

Where grapes grow.

Hibiscus

Sunlight filters through treetops 

Warmth reaches the bud

Livens petals to unfurl. A dance,

Like a birthday gift unwrapped by a queen,

Scarlet paper wrapping of softest silk,

Reveals crown jewels and scepter.

Beachcomber

In the black California sands

You walk patrol

Searching for scraps,

Searching for food,

Leaving web-prints.

The sun never burns your white face red.

Staring out to sea,

Your black bead eyes look tired.

Need some sun shades?

Egret

Old man of a bird

Stands unsteady and knock-kneed

Watching me with disapproval

Your white feathers thinning on top,

Eyes small in your weathered face.

I admire your willowy stance. 

You stare at me.

I laugh at you.

Flamingos

A flower and a bird that match

Who but God would think up that?

Angel Wings

There is a sound in color

There is a sound in light

A sound in wind

A sound in rain

A sound that makes us whole again

A sound of angel wings

A sound of life

Go watch a flower bloom and you will hear it yet.

Waves

What causes waves, I ask?

What sends them crashing on the shore?

Who calls to them? Stop here and go no more?

Blue turns to sea green and then folds itself 

Into frosty white breakers Then rushes back-- rushes!

Whose voice is it I hear roar?
I listened to the sea and thought the sound 
Was the voice of God;
But suddenly knew it was not. 
It was the voice of the sea praising the creator.

Palm

Seeds like crimson beads 

On raffia ribbons, 

Like a schoolgirl's beaded braids

Whimsical swag of color,

Dances in a palm tree,

Sways to the music of the wind.

Vine

Morning Glory vine 

Runs on the garden gate

Blossoms are new every morning

Like the mercies of God.

Surprise!

When you think that life is gone.

When there seems no hope.

When you think nothing is stirring

Life struggles up from somewhere deep

And begins again, all new.

Sun Flower

Five petals of pink

Softness

Meet the sun.

Hold their own

Against the heat.

Summer late 

Tiresome heat

Meet it with a smile.

Granddaughter

My grand-girl

My sweet girl

My precious girl!

Yes, I am a fan;

I'm the Grandma.