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!