Monday, March 31, 2014

Spring Calf

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful world, 
With the wonderful water around you curled....
Matthew Browne

First day on the planet
Your little legs are wobbly—your big eyes 
Taking it all in, wondering at every new thing,
Your coat warm with sunshine.

Your ears are large to catch 
All the new sounds, even your own voice,
Your pink nose learning the smell of milk
Your white face registering surprise.

The world is big, bold, and beautiful,
The grass soft and greening
The sky looms huge—unending and blue 
and we are just as amazed at you!

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Wakened

Spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing soil. 
Reginald Heber

Spring comes up and smacks us awake
With scents of daffodils, with colors that startle
Shout aloud—Hallelujah!

Thursday, March 27, 2014

First Green

For lo, the winter is  past, the rain is over and gone; 
the flowers appear on the earth;
 the time of the singing of the birds is come.
Song of Solomon 2:11-12

Even before the grass blades struggle up
And teen boys sigh at the vision 
Of lawns to mow—lawns green and plush—pulsing
Growing faster than
A five-year-old boy thinks he can run;
Before that—in March—daffodils whiter than 
The snow of December,
Ruffled like little girl's Easter Sunday petticoats,
Are full of green—green—miraculous—marvelous—green.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Jessie and Grandpa

A happy family is but an earlier heaven
Sir John Bowring

After all the stories
I feel I know this guy
He's my mama's grandpa, Folks,
The apple of her eye!
I've heard about his silly jokes
Heard his awesome tales
Of fishing and flying and other feats
Of fishes bigger than whales!
I'm glad I got to meet him
To climb up in his lap, to hear his voice
To know he's real
My sweet old funny grandpap!

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Welcome

A sweet new blossom of humanity, fresh fallen from
 God's own home to flower on earth. 
Gerald Massey

Welcome to the world, my sweet pea,
Welcome to love and welcome to family
Welcome to the world of spring peepers singing
To daffodils and garden seeds and splashing through puddles!
Welcome to firefly-chasing on summer nights
To camp-outs and hot days and running with your first dog.
 Welcome to autumn bonfires and marshmallows on sticks,
 To tag and pumpkins and jumping in piles of brown leaves
Welcome to Christmas wonder and toy trains, 
To snow men and sleds, to stockings and surprises 
Welcome to the seasons and the years.
Welcome to our house. Welcome to our arms.
Welcome to the world.

Thursday, March 20, 2014

White Roses

A man who could make one rose...
would be accounted most wonderful; 
 God scatters countless such flowers us! 
Martin Luther

Dressed in springtime finery
there she goes;
Nothing sweeter than a rose!
She is wearing her rose-colored glasses;
Down the rose-lined lane she passes.
A rose by any other name would still be sweet.
A poem without a rose is incomplete.
Roses are red, or so they say,
A rose a day keeps the doctor at bay.
Take time to stop and smell the roses;
The rose, the dearest of all the posies!
The fair sweet rose—a flower divine
A rose in time saves mind.
Whiskers on kittens and raindrops on roses,
Sweet as a newborn baby's toe-ses.
Sing of the glorious rose—I try
Tiger Lilies, lion-eyes, and roses, oh my!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Pink Rose

The grass withers, the flower fades, 
but the word of the Lord endures forever
Isaiah 40:8

How soon pass the blossom and
 the blade—how soon gone
Beauty of the Lord remains

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Green Green Green


Green, Green, Green
By Elece Hollis


Springtime invites you to believe anew. 
To realize that the same Lord who renews the trees 
 with buds and blossoms is ready to renew your life 
with hope and courage.
 Charles Swindoll

Daffodils and Forsythia
Are the year's yellows
Just before the sprout, the shout,
the coming-out of the green, green, green.


Monday, March 10, 2014

Crocus

Spring is God's way of saying hello.


First flowers of the winter's end
You shoot up—refuse to spend
Another moment underground
You have heard the merry sound

Of bluebirds singing overhead,
Felt winter rising from his bed,
You know the sun is shining bright
You strain upwards toward the light.

Poke your spikes of green up through
The waiting ground and cold snow too
You come up early to relay
That Spring is finally on his way.



Friday, March 7, 2014

Sunshine




Sunshine
By  Elece Hollis

Faith is the root, hope is the stem; love is the perfect flower.
F.B. Meyer

As far as I have seen 
Inside the world of flora
 There is not so fine a miracle 
As the sunflower—It's a sonnet
A great bright swirl of sunshine
petals like a bonnet
Face a spray of golden joy
Smile of glory on it!

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Roan

No one is rich enough to do without a neighbor. 
Danish Proverb

Red roan stands along the fence,
Though she has a large pasture,
She watches us drive by.
If she could, I think she would wave,
Wave like a child who likes to greet passersby,
Like a boy waiting to see Dad's car 
Pull up the road and into the drive,
Like a woman watching for a delivery truck
To bring her mail order,
Like a young girl waiting for a friend to arrive,
Like Gramps watching who will pass his way.
If she could wave, I think she would.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Summer Dream Quilt

Faith has to do with things that are not seen and hope 
with things that are not in hand.
Saint Thomas Aquinas

Hanging on the line to air
Flapping in the breeze,
A quilt bright with colors–
Leafy green of grass and trees,

Colors of midsummer days,
Mauve and pink of blooms,
Yellow of sweet sunshine,
Pieced in winter's fire-lit rooms

In her mind's eye spring had come
Patterns and shapes she fit,
Into a bright and happy dream
Thread and needle to picture it.




Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Rain on My Window

When God sorts out the weather and sends rain, 
Why, rain's my choice.
 James Whitcomb Riley

Driveway dark with wet,
Brown grass wicking the moisture,
Trees drinking it in with arms spread wide,
Roof serenading me with drumming,
Raindrops washing the window for me.
This weather is washing my soul,
Renewing and repairing my senses,
Freshening the prairie like wind off the ocean. 
I savor the clean taste of it,
Listen to the staccato sound of it,
Feel the clean wake of it,
Smell the soft scent of it,
See the sweet hope in each drop.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Sprouts

Beginning is half done.
Robert Schuller

Amazing
That they don't freeze
Up they pop–
Green sprouts
Ready for spring 
Not willing to wait
For warm days and sun-filled skies.
In February, when snow 
Is a coverlet of pure white,
They raise their leaves
Like flags of victory
Come on, Beauties,
Even a frost won't lessen
The wonder 
Of your yellow trumpets
Singing:
Spring, Spring, Spring!