White Rose

White reflects all colors and keeps itself plain, 

white and pure.

White is a beautiful color, isn't it?

c. e. hollis

The Rose

 By Elece Hollis

A rose uncurled––unfurled

 Then without a word showed to me

Her inner self. 

Why can't I be so brave,

To greet the world 

To show first my face

And not hide my heart?

The Real Green

I'm glad the sky is painted blue

And the earth is painted green,

With such a lot of nice fresh air 

All sandwiched in between.

Author Unknown

The Real Green

By Elece Hollis

Pale green of first leaves in springtime,

Green of the forest cool and deep?

 Green with envy, green as grass?

I can't let the question pass.

What is the real––realest real––the really, realest green?

Could it be the green of money,

The yellow-green side of a sycamore leaf,

Or the rind of a lime or the juice between?
 A holly leaf or a coffee bean? 

What is the real––realest real––the really, realest green?

Is it the green of a iris stem,

The shade of a dragonfly's wing?

The green of fir tree––the pines

The green of olives––or muscadines?

What is the real––realest real––the really, realest green?

Could it be an apple, pear, or string bean

 Or the root of a majestic live oak–– unseen

Or the gray-green of  moss swaying in the breeze 
Is it the green of holly leaves?

What is real––realest real––the really, realest green?

Come to The Garden

Flowers are food for the soul. 

They fill more than bread. 

They satisfy more than money. 

C.E. Hollis

Come To 

By Elece Hollis

Come to the garden where warm breezes blow sweetly

Where bluebirds and butterflies play.

Come to the garden, sit down for the feast

Where blessings are served up each day.

Come to the garden; take food for your soul

Food much more filling than jelly on toast.

Come to the garden and take in the sweetness,

Come visit where God serves as eminent host.

Come to the garden; come on go with me now;

Don't wait till after the morning has passed.

Come again in the evening, when shadows are falling,

Come to the table at last.

Earth Song

I love to think of nature 

as an unlimited broadcasting station 

through which God speaks to us every hour 

if we will only

 tune in. 

George Washington Carver

Earth Song

By Elece Hollis

Every flower a trumpet,

Each blade of grass a quivering string;

Everywhere we turn we hear the earth

Raise instruments a song to bring.

There's music in the meadow,

There's rhythm beating in the trees;

Over all the wind elects to play

A melody upon the breeze. 

Summer Rose

A man who could make one rose…would be

 accounted most wonderful; 

yet God scatters countless such flowers around us!

 His gifts are so infinite that we do not see them. 

Martin Luther

Summer Rose

  by Elece Hollis

Late in the heat of July, 

Having feasted on spring eye candy

Flowers everywhere––daffodils, peonies,

Having our souls filled up with sunshine 

With bright festival zinnias and daisies,

Having been feted with fireworks

Having taken a stroll on the beach, 

Seen the seagulls wheeling in the bright sky,

Having filled our tummies with fresh tomatoes

With peaches warm from the trees

Dazed by the heat and full up 

With wonder we hurry past

The sweet little roses and never stop

To smell them.

Summer Is

Memory is the diary that we all carry with us. 

Oscar Wilde

Summer Is

By Elece Hollis

Summer is Crepe Myrtle pushing pink lace and sweet perfume,

Watermelon splitting open red with a luscious crack,

Corn ears––silk showing––waiting for eager hands to harvest,

Tomatoes ripening on the vine––juicy and sweet.

Summer is watching the wind make dancing leaf shadows,

Hummingbirds bickering at the feeders––cicadas thrumming,

Bumblebees hovering over honeysuckle vines,

Mailbox standing beside the dusty road––listing and thirsty.

Summer is children running splashing in the sprinkler,

Popsicles dripping on little fingers with wonderful stickiness,

Working in the hot sun and resting in the long evenings,

Chasing fireflies and capturing them in Mason jars.

Summer is sitting on the porch swing listening to hoot owls,

Bouquets of Queen Anne's Lace and Brown-eyed Susans,

Eating a late dinner at eight-thirty of fresh garden foods,

Sleeping on Grandma's screened in back porch.

Summer is forever.

Rosebud

Summer, summer, summer––it sweeps up 

over your soul like a slow wave.

c.e.hollis

Rosebud

By Elece Hollis

Struggle against the summer sun

And the Oklahoma wind,

Fight the evening thunderstorms.

Peek out into the dark night,

If you dare...

Come, little rosebud,

Open in spite of it all.

Uncurl your wings!

Unfurl to the morning light and find

A hummingbird waiting

To sip you good morning.

Queen of Weeds

With time and patience 

the mulberry leaf becomes satin. 

Chinese Proverb

Wildflower

by Elece Hollis

Like cream in a pink china cup

She is a considerable beauty for a weed.

Wreathed in green and soft as silk

She is a wonder indeed.

Feelin' Blue

O God from my youth you have taught me, 

and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds,

 and even when I am old and gray, 

O God, do not forsake me, until I declare your strength

 to this generation, 

your power to all who are to come.

 Psalm 71:17-18

Feelin' Blue

By  Elece Hollis

Ever get to feelin' blue? 

Old and used and broken too?

Ever think your time has passed,

You've done your part, you've seen the last

Of being useful––being one who can

Serve his God and his fellow man?

This old window made me think

I know I'm old, but not extinct!

Though the frame is worn and paint has peeled

Look close––you'll see its worth revealed.

The sky is reflected in the pane

It manages still to keep out rain.

The whole is set in old red brick

That solid wall is strong and thick.

So when you get to feelin' blue

Think of what you still can do.

Remember of the colors too

What a lovely wonderful shade is blue!

The Prairie Speaks

The Prairie Speaks

 By Elece Hollis

The prairie speaks in color. 

Oh so quiet sound;

Sweet and soft––to the point 

Always most profound.

The prairie speaks in texture,

Rough and rustling grass

She speaks in ribs, in lines, in points

She touches all who pass.

The prairie speaks in light somehow;

Finds just the words to say,

To let your listening soul hear

What it needs today.

The prairie speaks with fragrance,

Speaks distinctly, I suppose.

Whispers the secrets that she tells

Directly to your nose.

The prairie speaks with music

That no symphony can play.

Wind, rain, grasshoppers, birds 

Sound both night and day.

So walk out on the prairie, 

Listen with your heart;

And you will find there notes to read

Before you must depart.

Working

The best kind of play contains an element of work, 

and the most productive kind of work must include 

something of the spirit of play.

Sydney J. Harris

Working

By Elece Hollis 

His work is never done. 

From dawn to setting sun

The bee works––never shirks his duty

Visiting beauty 

He carries it to others.

Our work should be so grand!

From dawn till darkness fills the land

We should work––never shirk our duty

Finding beauty

Then carrying it to others.

Bright Song

 Beauty is God's handwriting––a wayside sacrament. 

Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower, 

and thank God for it as a cup of blessing. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Bright Song

By Elece hollis

Beside the steam I found them 

Sunlit iris wild.

I stopped and walked among them with

 Wonder of a child.

I sat down and I listened

And I began to hear

Music from the forest, the ocean,

Coming near.

I think I heard a mountain 

Singing a sweet air

A melody, a tune, a hymn, a ballad 

I could share.

So I joined in the singing, 

The serenade of light;

An anthem, a soft lullaby, a sonnet,

Chorus bright.

Blue is Not

In wonder-workings

 or some bush aflame,

Men look for God and fancy him concealed;

But in earth's common things he stands revealed 

While grass and flowers and stars

 spell out his name. 

Minot Judson Savage

Blue is Not

By Elece Hollis

Blue is not a flower color normally.

Blue is the ocean on a still shore. 

Reflecting the sky of a summer day.

Blue is the vase in the windowsill

In Grandma's kitchen, reserved for violets

Dandelions and other special bouquets.

Blue is berries in a white bowl, 

Sparkled with sugar and peeping from a swirl of cream.

Blue is the color of robin eggs waiting in a nest.

Blue is a newborn baby's eyes.

Blue is hydrangea.

Symmetry

Open your eyes and the whole world is full of God. 

Jakob Bohme

Symmetry

By Elece Hollis

Look and see

Symmetry displayed in

Every flower.

Design

Beyond the limit

Of human minds.

Amazing shapes

On trivia wasted?

No, not so!

Each a sample

Lesson, an example

So we know.

Mysteria

God sings––we hum along––a

simple beautiful song. 

Mitch Albom

Mysteria

by Elece Hollis

She dangles in clusters,

Purple like grapes,

Kind as a friend's smile

Delicate as sweet peas 

On the vine.

She dances with breeze,

Purple in the green

Soft as satin leaves

Fluttering in between

Earth and sky.

She is southern as tea,

Cool and worry free

In the humidity

The withering heat

Mysterious––wisteria.

Sunny Song

O world, as God has made it! All is beauty. 

Robert Browning.

Song 

by Elece Hollis

The sun is hot on the meadow grass

A sweet cool shower makes a pass

Cools the air while the sun still shines

Waters weeds and drips down vines.

The sun so hot it reflects time,

Stars, the moon, and cloud design.

Sun breaks out among the grass

Meadowlarks alight and pass.

Queen Anne––brown-eyed Susan stay

Among the grasses dance and sway.

They sing and twirl; they bob and bend

Pray may summer never end.

Plainly Beautiful

Plainly Beautiful

By Elece

How plain you are––how colorless. 

What do you know of show?

I have a bit of color

Most will never know.

I've never seen you blooming;

I don't believe you do!

I don't bloom just exactly 

As God meant you to do.

Some folks just don't have color

They are lifeless and alone.

It's just that I bloom quietly

Home and in my zone.

Some are gifted with a special

Way of blooming few will see.

It makes them all more wonderful

For the their unique rarity.

Swimmin'

Swimmin'

Oh! the old swimmin'- hole! whare the creek so still and deep

 Looked like a baby-river that is laying half asleep,

From The Old Swimming-Hole by James Whitcomb Riley

Otter be Fun

Summer is for swimming in 

Your little green pool–– splashing, 

Splashing in the shade and the cool.

Summer is an otter's dream,

In the moonlight at the midnight

Among the rocks she splashes

Where little fishes try to sleep,

She splashes and and she splashes.

Otters at swimming school!

Watching Them Grow

"The sun warmed the upturned earth that day. 

The small seed placed in the furrow to grow 

shrank inside as the outside wrinkled. 

The earth grew dark and damp and cold.

 Shriveling hurt until the sun drew forth 

from the ache 

a leaf." 

Claire Pedretti

Watching Them Grow

By Elece Hollis

                 

Old as I am

I have seen many things.

The greatest, I think,

Is the growth of a child

The infant––then the crawler 

Then the toddler

Walker

Then able to run

To ride a bike

Amazing

Changes in so short a time

 Miraculous 

From a babe in arms

 to a real person

Running, playing, 

Exploring

 the big, big world!

Soar

"Faith is blind––except upward. 

It is blind to impossibilities, and deaf to doubt."

S. D.Gordon

Soar

Soar 

By Elece Hollis

 Soar in the sky! Like a bird––Take wing!

It looks to me like an effortless thing.

To glide on the wind through the winter sky,

 To soar up high––to glide––to fly.

We struggle and worry our goals to achieve,

When in faith we could soar––trust––believe.

We could fly above all hubbub and noise;

 Find instead life's blessings and joys.

Soar in the sky! Like a bird––take wing!

Trade worry and doubt for a song to sing.

For life indeed is a marvelous thing.

Take off! Take heart––have faith! Take wing!

Listen and Silent

"Listen and Silent are spelled with the same letters––coincidence? 

I don't think so. " Alfred Brendel

Silent

 by Elece Hollis

Have you ever listened

 to the sound 

of a single candle 

flickering in a dark place? 

   

 Have you ever listened
to the power

of a whispered prayer 

in the center of a crisis? 

Have you ever listened 

to the thunder 

of one soft kind word

 in the midst 

of an angry crowd?

Have you ever listened

to different?

Have you ever listened?