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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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. 

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.

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.