Friday, September 29, 2017

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?








Monday, September 25, 2017

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?



Saturday, September 23, 2017

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.











Friday, July 14, 2017

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. 



Thursday, July 13, 2017

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.

Wednesday, July 12, 2017

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.








Tuesday, July 11, 2017

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.

Saturday, July 8, 2017

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!

Friday, July 7, 2017

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.



Thursday, July 6, 2017

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.

Wednesday, July 5, 2017

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.














Tuesday, July 4, 2017

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.

Monday, July 3, 2017

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.




Sunday, July 2, 2017

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.







Saturday, July 1, 2017

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.

Friday, June 30, 2017

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.




Thursday, June 29, 2017

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!

Monday, April 17, 2017

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!

Friday, February 24, 2017

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!

Monday, January 30, 2017

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?