Saturday, November 30, 2013

Cinnamon Rolls


                 Let there be work, bread, water and salt for all. 
Nelson Mandela
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
                                                                              
Licky, sticky,
Warm and delicious,
Sweet and swathed in icing
Spicy, sugary
Soft and superb
Nutty and never enough 
Buttery, beautiful
Fresh baked cinnamon rolls
On a cold day
Wonderful! 

Friday, November 29, 2013

Does the Hawk

Does the hawk fly by your wisdom, 
and stretch her wings toward the south? 
Job 39:26

Perched on the pasture gate
He sits staring,
Watching for who knows what?
He looks past me
Looks beyond
Waiting, watching
Hawk

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Delightful

A merry heart does good like a medicine.
Proverbs 17:22

Sadly enough, 
I think if this set had been mine,
I would have painted it black.
I am glad—so glad, that someone else 
Chose red and yellow!

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

The Blue Bowl

Abundance is finding extra family.

It wasn't greeted as cheerily this year
It reminded us that our Margaret wasn't here
Her favorite food to bring for Thanksgiving,
Red Jello with bananas on top, showed up without her
In her blue bowl that I saved from her kitchen shelf.
She wasn't much of a cook,
Living with no family for many years,
But she counted us her family;
 All holidays she came to our house;
So the blue bowl with red cherry dessert
Came year after year. We remembered Margaret
As in her honor I mixed it and as we passed it around
The table we spoke her name.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Budded Branch

For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, 
every green tree is far more glorious 
than if it were made of gold or silver.
Martin Luther

Winter has come and the trees
Already have begun to form next year's leaves;
At every place where a leaf has loosened and 
Flown on the blustery wind
A new bud, hard and dark, takes shape.
All winter they sleep and grow 
Strong through the cold, storms, and snows
When the first rains and warm sunny days arrive
The bud will swell and burst with new green.
If we will stop and look close 
We'll  learn that things are never as
Hopeless as they seem.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Party Time

Truth exists for the wise, beauty for the feeling heart. 
~Johann Von Schiller

Break out the streamers, 
The banners, the flags!
Blow the balloons
Strike up the bands!
The world is decorated for autumn!
Celebrate! Celebrate!
It's party time all over town
The trees are painted with happiness
Red, orange, yellow, and golden brown!


Sunday, November 24, 2013

Beautiful We

"Everybody's beautiful in their own way"
Ray Stevens

Our eyes are all different 
As different as our fingerprints
So many billions of us yet God created each of us
Unique.
Who are you? Who am I?
When I begin to find the person God made 
Me to be
 I can be happy and beautiful,
My own
Kind of beautiful 
And see the beauty in others,
Their own
Kind of beautiful,
Unique.



Saturday, November 23, 2013

Window Pain

Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them,
 for they do not know what they do."
John 23:34

Sunlight streams through 
Colored glass
Window pane—I see your cross.
His pain to ease my pain
Beautiful cross—through you light
Came into the world and found me
Beautiful pain, beautiful pane
Beautiful.

Friday, November 22, 2013

Windswept Doorway

You have set the borders of the earth; 
You have made summer and winter. 
Psalm 74:17

Leaves when they fall
Miss the company they knew
Waving to each other on summer mornings,
Chatting together on airless afternoons,
Clinging together shaking during thunderstorms,
Whispering secrets on sultry summer nights.
They fall tumbling, bumbling, fumbling
To the ground where they re-congregate happily
Along fences and against country barns and houses.
They are swept down alleys and across sidewalks
They meet and greet each other with 
Lengthy sincere hugs—camaraderie    
Sweet fellowship!

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Amaryllis

Lord, let me keep my rejoicing current.
As fresh as eggs, as new as the morning paper; 
as bright as my children's faces 
or sunlight dancing at the door.
Marjorie Holmes

Like a miracle during the cold days of winter
A bright spring beauty makes her debut into the world;
Nothing sheepish about this girl. 
She has confidence galore.
She's the star of the week with room to spare,
Not even one rival or runner-up in this pageant
Six petals—three ruffled and three trim
What a great gown and how well she wears it!
She's the winner—hands down
But wait—who's this behind her? a twin? triplets?
Identical to the last detail, oh my!
You never know what a day in November will bring!


Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Holidaze

God always gives us strength enough, 
and sense enough, 
for everything he wants us to do.
John Ruskin 
                                        

Basket of Pecans,
Ready for shelling for
Thanksgiving pies,
Christmas candies,
New Year's cookies.
Basket of goodness!

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Downtown Gallery

One of the most important—and most neglected—elements 
in the beginnings of the interior life is the ability 
to respond to reality, see the value and the beauty
 in ordinary things.
~Thomas Merton~

White picture frames
With
Sky blue mats
Hold Picassos of the
Brown brick building 
Across the street
Warbled in old glass
Things are not always 
What they appear
To be.


Monday, November 18, 2013

Sycamore Autumn

Art is the demonstration that the ordinary is extraordinary.
~Amedee Ozenfant~

Sun on browning sycamore 
leaves—leaves
me
in awe—in autumn.
How can such tones,
Colors of sunrises and sunsets,
be held so surely
in thin dried
paper shapes?
Round yellow seed balls
pop out on stage 
to join the show
to dance—the dance.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Chimes

Enjoy the music of the world—crickets, wind, children and all the sounds that make life here on earth so rich.
~Candy Paull~

Wind sings a song of its own;
There is the percussion shimmer of dry leaves,
The whoosh of pine like the swoosh of cymbals,
I hear the clarinet hum—wind wuthering around the walls
The flutey note when a gust crosses the chimney pipe!
Wind clatters and shatters the silence with a rat-a-tat-tat 
A snare drum playing a branch against the roof.
Wind cries like a soprano in pitches our ears can barely find
Washes over grasses with deep tones of bass.
Wind, sing, but still play this little set of chimes for me
I love the music you help them make.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Fall Berries

Happiness is a thing to be practiced, like the violin.
John Lubbock

Gathered along gray stems like family
Clustered together waiting for Thanksgiving dinner,
Like groups of homeless in hodgepodge wraps standing 
In the prickly cold cheerfully awaiting a festive meal,
Like swarms of school children crowding excitedly in lunch line,
Like knots of friends chatting and laughing
Assembled in a church hall for a special meal together.
Fall berries keep company, busy, buzzing, raising the sound
Of happy soon-to-be coming get-togethers
Stop at the fenceline and gather for your heart's sake
Some of these berry boughs
To brighten those days ahead.
And to welcome the holidays home.

Friday, November 15, 2013

Sweetgum Tree

Autumn is a celebration of nature, 
its rarefied air tugging at our senses, 
begging for praise for the Creator. 
June Masters Bacher

Purple, orange, green, 
Yellow and red
All the colors in one tree
Singing to the autumn sky
A host of shiny star shapes
Shaking and shimmering in the 
Sun and wind
Like so many frolicking children
Costumed and excited
 On a school stage.
Let the show begin!


Thursday, November 14, 2013

Camp Table

A sunny afternoon
Camp coffee long since gone
Pot still blackened by
This morning's fire
Blue enamelware cups sit
Like ornaments against the brown table and a
Bread trough of
Oranges bright with sunlight
Full of sweetness
Like decorations too
Make a happy campsite on
A sunny afternoon.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Firewood

No matter where I am, no matter what obstacles I'm facing, 
I will seek the laughter in my winter.
Debra Klingsporn

Stacked out in the sunshine
Along the porch
Firewood waits for wind winging in cold days
Waits for a frosty frigid night to warm us
Waits for sleet and freezing rain
For snowfall and  grey-sky days
Waits for its final work as a tree,
Comforting—protecting
 A family on bitter wintry days,
But no, still the ashes enrich the soil
And new trees sprout and grow
Wood, an earthy treasure fine as gold. 

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Nut Case

Each one sees what he carries in his heart
Goethe

Atop the fence's
Corner post
A squirrel or maybe a crow 
Took lunch of a tasty pecan,
Snapped the nut meat neatly
From its wooden casing,
Left behind for us
The still green husk.
For interest's sake 
Not a poor trade on 
My day.

Monday, November 11, 2013

Letters

The telescope makes the world smaller, 
it is only the microscope that makes it larger.
G. K. Chesterton

In the waning afternoon light
I find fallen leaves across my path
 Like letters from summer
I read these notes
Every word 
I try to read what is written
Between the lines
Wisdom must come from life 
Lived so short a time
Yet, so gloriously well.

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Fruit Bowl

Abundance is food enough to share and spare.

Fruit in a bowl 
Sight for the eye and the soul
One day oranges or peaches
Another day I find pears and figs
Bananas, grapefruit, tangerines
Bounty of the fruit bowl
Today tomatoes and yellow/green
Red blushed apples.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

Canada geese

There is the music of heaven in all things.
~Hildegard of Bingen~

I heard honking in the dark clouded sky
Voices trumpeting, voices moving last night
Over and gone, I thought, and my heart was sad
Today I see you feeding on the lake
Are you here to spend a winter with me
Or are you heading further south?
Will you stay? Please stay!

Friday, November 8, 2013

Golden Days

Write in your heart that each day is the best day of the year.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Priceless days of November
When trees wear golden hair
We see gold on the water
We breathe gold in the air.

Gone is the green of summer,
The browns of winter yet rare;
Springing from pathway and arbor
Gold is everywhere.

Who needs gold that can't be spent?
For such  the fool doesn't care;
Yet this gold is gold that suits my soul
I'll treasure up my share.


Thursday, November 7, 2013

Food for the Soul

Happiness lies in the absorption in some vocation
which satisfies the soul.
 Henry Ward Beecher

 Applesauce for winter suppers, 
Spring lunches and summer breakfasts
Preserved for days without plenty
A piece of harvest goodness stowed away to enjoy later.
A loaf of bread warm and spicy from the oven
These are pleasures not only in the eating of them,
Also in the preparing of them.
 I hold the bounty of summer again
 I feel the sunlight and the sweetness of the breeze again
Experience the joys of friendship, family, 
The goodness of God's provision
I find satisfaction.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

White and Cobalt Blue

The earth laughs in flowers
Ralph Waldo Emerson

A tiny November blossom 
Laughs from my windowsill;
Brightens the kitchen
With its honey-sweet voice.

Tuesday, November 5, 2013

The Stone Cottages

Only one life will soon be past
Only what's done for Christ will last
C.T. Studd

Long they stood
Walls and arches over doorways
Baked by Oklahoma Augusts
Cured again and again, like bricks in kilns,
Like pottery that holds a story
Long they stood
Beaten by wind and weather.
Shifting foundations left cracks
Boys with rocks broke out windows
Birds and squirrels stayed
Replacing summer tourists
Vines crept up the stones
Trees sprouted and struggled to grow
Until roofs caved in
Rain helped the sprouts push skyward.
The earth reclaims the land
Yet long the old walls stood.

Monday, November 4, 2013

October Day


Ho, a chilly day!
Fall at her best
Summer’s been squeezed
Through a cider press.

On with your sweater
Come on—Let’s run
Till we’re finally warmed
By the autumn sun!

We’ll climb the pear tree
Gather them in
Baskets and buckets,
Boxes and bin.

Gather those pumpkins.
Carve us a “Jack”.
Cut golden sunflowers
Hang ‘em on the rack.

There’s soup for supper
With fresh hot bread.
Watch the orange moon rise
Then scurry off to bed.

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Empty Nest


 I've often said that the most important thing you 
can give your children is wings.
Elizabeth Edwards

Woven of grasses,
Sweet with summer
Under the pear tree—
Forsaken in November,
She found a little bird's nest
"Where is the bird, Grandma?"
She wants to know
"Flown, and how soon flown. 
Yes, how soon."

Saturday, November 2, 2013

Napping Grandpa


Napping Grandpa
By Elece Hollis




Age does not make us childish, as some say; 
it finds us true children. 
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Sunlight streaming in on him
Makes the couch the best napping spot.
Grandpa rests, sleeps his "spoon nap,"
Tired of the day early on
He snuggles his hands warm
Under his neck and face,
 He breathes deep,
Plays a game of Hide and No Seek
With his world and his work.

Friday, November 1, 2013

Mama's Face

I love the deep quiet in which I live and grow against 
 the world and harvest what they cannot
 take from me with fire or sword.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

There are secrets hidden in this smile,
Stories in this face. Life and
Years have etched memories—
Times that will not tell
Days not to be recalled.
Tears have fallen from these eyes
Joy tears and pain tears that now
Merge into a quiet acceptance of time
Sorrow lurks here in her features
And pensive poetry tries to escape
A dream wishing to be begotten
Of places now almost forgotten.
A song emanates through this skin
Singing she has loved and is loved
Mother, white capped with wisdom,
Longs for missing days, looks for empty spots
Where no light can reach,
I wish I knew the words that 
Are still inside.