Amen to Summer

The Amen of nature is always a flower.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

 At the end of summer

A flower,

As at the end of a sentence

A period,

At the end of each season

 A sigh,

A pause for breath

A comma,

At the end of a crisis

A cry,

As at the end of a journey

A new beginning,

At the end of life

A farewell,

At the close of a prayer

An amen.

At the end of summer

A flower.

The Green

Nature will bear the closest inspection. 

She invites to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf,

 and take an insect view of its plain.

Henry David Thoreau

Sunlight 

On your green paper

Folded origami shapes

Each perfect

Each precise 

Each formed by the voice 

And breath of God

Symmetric each barely

Discernible from its fellow

Hundreds on a tree

Dozens along each twig

Each color mixed to the exact 

Tone of green

No earthly artist could replicate

 Such work, so faultless, so unerring

So perfect

So precise

So amazing!

Yellow rose

Smile, because life's a beautiful thing

 and there's so much to smile about.

Marilyn Monroe

Lemon on lime

Ruffled masterpiece 

Seen on a lazy daisy late 

Summer afternoon

Like a perfect rhyme,

Softer than a lambkin's fleece.

Lean against the garden gate

Whistle up a sunny tune.

Vase

Where we love is home-

home that our feet may leave, 

but not our hearts.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Soft morning light falls

Across my table

Homely, homemade, homespun, 

homegrown,  

Home sweet home

Filled with things I love:

Wicker baskets,

Old vases, wood, cloth,

Books, babies, 

Fleeting flowers, plaids.

Light sweetens simple 

Everyday things.

Oranges

For by Him were all things created, 

that are in heaven,

 and that are in earth, 

both visible and invisible...

Colossians 1:16 

Pottery bowl came from the soil

As sure as oranges picked from trees

Came from the earth

All we use, or eat, or know

Comes from God's creation 

An old earth—full of water,

Chemicals, and minerals 

Made those first six days

Recycled, reused, reformed, 

Rendered new, 

Endowed with agelessness,

Given to us again 

Fresh from God's hands

Imbued with new life. 

Skipper

Happiness is a butterfly...which if you sit down quietly
 may alight on you.
Nathaniel Hawthorne

Skipper,

Little gray cousin of the monarch

Why so small—so dull?

How did you come to be so plain

So everyday—so dirty dishwater?

Where's your color?

Your pizazz?

God didn't care?

He didn't see 

You needed to be 

Bright orange 

Viridian green 

Cobalt blue 

Banana yellow?

Trust Him 

He had His reasons

And I think you are cute.

Cock's Comb

All nature sings and 'round us rings the music of the spheres

Maltie D. Babcock

Unique as the coral thriving on a reef,

Colorful as tropical birds of the jungle,

Bright as flames of fire,

Soft as the fibers of a baby's first blanket,

Sweet as maple syrup cooked from sap.

The complexity of a simple flower

A single green leaf

Is proof beyond question that

Earth has an amazing wonderful creator!

Pink Rose Bud

God writes in trees, flowers, clouds, and stars.

Little bit of color

Just a smidge—a drip

From one of 

God's paintbrushes!

Soul Food

For every beast of the forest is mine, 
and the cattle on a thousand hills. 
I know all the fowls of the mountains; 
and the wild beasts of the field are mine.

Psalm 50:10–11

In the falling light of evening

Cows graze

Through the golden light

A carpet of grass 

Lush and nutritious

Provision from God's hand

The scene is food too

Food for my soul.

Sunshine

Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God. 
Job 37 :14b

Sunshine swirled with blood

Light and life in one bloom

Inside your green wrap

Inside your yellow skin

Your tapered bud

You were so small and tight 

Then you curled open one day

Graceful without even a struggle

Showing on your face—you

Swirled open and smiled at the world.

Clouds Searching

"If the sight of blue skies fills you with joy, 

if a blade of grass springing up

 in the fields has power to move you,

if the simple things of nature have a message

 that you understand, rejoice, 

for your soul is alive."

 Eleonora Duse

Clouds scud across the blue

Building into the cold of the sky

 As if searching for rain

Searching for cool weather to come

Searching for autumn and pumpkins,

Apples and pecans

Searching for October days

For November nights

Searching for winter.

Wow!

"The secret of contentment is knowing

how to enjoy what you have."

Splash! 

Bright color on the dusty green

Of summer's dog days,

Mums make their fall debut

Hitting the scene

With flair and high style

Splash! Like fireworks 

Exploding against the green!

Splash!

Pow! Ping! Pow! 

Wow!

Purple Star

"If you ignore beauty, 
you will soon find yourself without it. 
But if you invest in beauty 
it will remain with you
 all the days of your life." 
Frank Lloyd Wright

Mystery flower

Purple star

Veined with deep violet

It's your time to bloom

Bloom all morning

Call the honeybees to feast 

Bloom all afternoon

Call the hummingbirds for tea 

Bloom all evening

Life will be short

Too short— bloom

Bloom all day

Bloom your heart out

Dare me to sing.

Gift

"A fistful of dandelions proffered by a child holds 
more delight than any floral shop bouquet."
C.E.Hollis

Expressions of love

From a child's hands

Are greater treasures than jewels

More beautiful than gold 
Worth more than diamonds

Sweeter than chocolates 
Sweeter than candies

Sweet enough to make me smile

A smile that lingers—lingers long.

Garden Fruit

 "But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,
 gentleness, goodness, meekness, temperance, faith...."
Galatians 5:22-23

 Bowl of tomatoes

 Washed and waiting

 Fresh and still warm from the garden

 I can't taste you

 I must admire you first for a while

 Your color so true and bright

 Your shiny smooth skin

 Your soft sweetness

 With the flavor of the earth 

 And sunlight inside

Mums

"There is almost nothing as jubilant as a crowd of chrysanthemums."
C.E. Hollis

Like happy faces in the bleachers

Faces bright—ready waiting for the game

Waiting for the players to run out onto the field

The anthem to be sung

Waiting for the excitement to begin 

Under the stadium lights 

One fall Friday evening;

Yellow chrysanthemums stand on tiptoes

Straining stretching toward the sound.

Promises

"Remember the day's blessings, 
forget the day's troubles."
Unknown

Green buds primed to 

Unfurl into purpley-blue glories

Dancing in the morning light

Waiting for the kiss of sunrise 

For your day to bloom,

To smile up at God, 

To catch dew drops,

To swish your blue skirt in the breeze

Short—it will be—

Short and glorious

Your chance to praise Him 

With your trumpet of blue 

To sing from your throat of rosy red

Slice of Life

"You crown the year with your goodness."

Psalm 65:11

Green and red, red and green

What happy-go-lucky 
Shades of life

What bright and merry colors

Red and green, green and red

Happy colors and sweet!

Summer's Goodbye

"While the earth remains, seedtime
 and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, 
day and night shall not cease."
Genesis 8:22

Yellow 
Is the color of late summer;

As it morphs from yellow to brown

By way of oranges and reds.

Autumn comes for a few short days,

Finds itself in the transition to cold

With the year's sunniest lightest color:  

Yellow Coreopsis, yellow Sunflowers,

Yellow Gum Plant, yellow Bitterweed

Goldenweed, yellow Sneezeweed, 

Golden Asters, yellow Tickweed.

Cut-leaved Daisies, yellow Gaillardia, 

Oklahoma yellow kissing summer

Goodbye with a tear

Greeting autumn with a happy sigh.

Fallen on Green

"Beauty is the shadow of God on the universe."

Gabriela Mistral

Like a shard 

Fallen from one of the orange-red planets

Fallen from the hot sky

Fallen on a weary summer day

This tiny piece of heaven is

Fallen—fragile yet unbroken

Fallen onto the green leaves and grass 

Fallen softly, slipped from God's hand

Like a painted china cup

Dancer in White

"Flowers are music for the soul."
***

She lifts her pale face

To the clear sky—to the heat

She bows and glows on

In Living Colors

"Beauty puts a face on God."
Margaret Brownley

Reminds me this

Of crayons in their paper sleeves

Coloring up bright memories

With names like aqua green and periwinkle blue,

Swiss cheese, cinnamon apple, and desert brown,

Maple leaf red, bubblegum pink, peachy keen.

Names like apricot dreamsicle, lemon lilt, 

Cherry red, dusty pink, dogwood petal white

Names that tickled me inside—berry blueberry blue 

And made me dream in living colors.

I Love You

"Love is a great thing, a great good in every way; 

it alone lightens what is heavy and leads smoothly

 over all roughness."

 Thomas A. Kempis

I have a secret;

What do you think it is?

I have a secret;

Try to guess.

I have a secret;

Tell me if you know.

Do you know...

I love you!

Chandelier

How wonderful, O Lord, are the works of Your hands!

Sparkle and glimmer

Bright, pretty shimmer 

Made to impress

Beautiful ? Yes,

But not to compare to 

The afternoon sun 

Filtering through leaves 

Fluttering in a breeze

Nothing beside the

Moonlight on water or 

Stars sprinkled across 

The night sky. 

Light

"The sun is...warmth-giving and happiness-giving...."

Jessi Lane Adams

Sunlight streams across the floor

Searching emptiness 

For shadows to dispel. Come.

Impossible Bumblebees

"We have a God who delights in impossibilities."

Andrew Murray

Hummingbirds and bumblebees,

Sweet scented lilacs and Sequoia trees,

Desert cactus on the burning sand,

The tiny fingers of an infant's hand.

 For every minute—every day

Miracles bloom in vast array!

From an eagle soaring across the sky

To the lenses in the human eye.

Your troubles come and smother you

You worry—don't know what to do

Remember then, you doubting man, 

What's "can't" to you—to Him is "can."

A Little Thing

"Enjoy the little things. 
One day you may look back 
and realize they were the big things."

Walking with my grandbaby
This morning, I plucked apples from 
Scraggly trees in the orchard,
Held her high so she could pull some.
We loaded a basket and carried them inside.
We washed the red and green pomes,
Laying them to dry on a white dish towel.
Picking apples with grandma 
May one day be a memory she delights in;
A little thing that became
One of the big things.

Dividend

"Good heavens, of what uncostly material

 is our earthly happiness composed... if we only knew it. 

What incomes have we not had from a flower, 

and how unfailing are the dividends of the seasons."

James Russell Lowell 

Giant rolls of hay 

Line the barnyards and pastures

Holding promise of plenty for winter

Golden brown grass with 

Water and green pulled out

Waiting to be dinner to 

Herds of hungry horses

Cows carrying calves

Who will greet the world 

Early one chilly morning.

Hope

"We are made to reach out beyond our grasp." 

Oswald Chambers

Suncatchers

Soaking up excess sunlight 

Saving it for fall days when 

Dawn arrives later and 

Evening falls earlier

Skies are gray

Needing a torch of light

To ready them for winter.

Circle of Time

Wagon wheel, you once went to town

Now you stand to guard the gate.

Wheel, I wonder where you've been and when?

Did you carry fruit from orchard to market;

Did you carry children to their country school?

Are you sad when you remember then?

Did you roll to the churchyard Sundays,

Carry a family to homestead out west?

You've turned to fencing—never again to spin.

You are still a part of the farm now,

Guarding the pastured stock, connecting

Yesterday to tomorrow—like an old and cherished friend.