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? 

Soul Music

What man has written man may read; 

But God fills every root and seed 

With cryptic words, too strangely set 

For mortals to decipher yet. 

Charles Dalmon

Bloom

 By Elece Hollis

The language of God 

Who can read? Words not in speech.

 But in notes of song,

Drifting––riding on a warm breeze.

Words like flute notes from a wooden pipe,

High and bright and sweet.

Words like rain falling softly

  Like a shaft of golden sunshine,

Like honey and fruits,

Like tree sap and honeysuckle tea.

 Words in code that speak always and ever

 The same line of poetry from the Maker's heart

You are mine. 

I love you. 

I always will.

Time

You're a man, you've seen the world––

The beauty and the wonder and the power, 

The shape of things, their colors, lights and shades, 

Changes, surprises–– And God made it all!

Robert Browning

Time

By Elece Hollis

Time for vases of daffodils on the windowsill.

Time for filling the hummingbird feeders.

Time for sunny warmer days and thunder-stormy evenings.

Time for treefrogs singing after rain.

Time for listening for the returning song of the scissortail.

Time for goldfinches bright yellow in the dandelion patches.

Time to start mowing grass.

Time for azaleas blooming in the park.

Time for bumblebees investigating the first roses.

Time to eat asparagus for supper.

Time for watching the sunset from the porch swing.

Time for wonder. Time for renewal.

Time for dogwood.

Rose

Rose

By Elece

gold and honey stirs

the mind, soul with soft sunlight

singing in the garden

A Man Who Could Make a Rose

A Man Who Could Make a Rose

 By Elece

In April Every Morning

Promise

It is not raining rain to me, 

It's raining daffodils

Robert Loveman

Promise

By Elece Hollis

Promise of sunshine tightly curled 

In each swelling bud,

Promise of sunshine and warmer days,

Promise of gardens and summer squash,

Promise of blackberries ripening on the bush,

Of cool green shade and sips of sweet lemonade.

Promise so immense it cannot be contained 

In a tiny seed, in a tight stem, in a swollen bud

Promise of sunshine–– break out! 

I am ready for you.

©2014 Elece Hollis , author of Meet God in the Morning, Poems from the Heart of Prayer,

 a devotional book with poems by Helen Steiner Rice. Find this book.

Dance Anyway

Dance, then, wherever you may be; 

And I'll lead you all in the dance said he.

Sydney Carter

Dance Anyway

By Elece Hollis

Little flower in the grass

With leaves like hearts,

Fairies of February

Your tiny green buds 

Pop open white then 

Unfold to show pink

And I walk past.

You wave at passersby

But no one sees. You 

Are too plain––too small

The world takes no note;

You are no bright red tulip

No splendid rose; but dance 

In the chill breeze you will

And sing of spring coming!

©2014 Elece Hollis , author of Meet God in the Morning, Poems from the Heart of Prayer,

 a devotional book with poems by Helen Steiner Rice. Find this book.