Female Cardinal in the Berries

"In the garden of my life I'm done with anger, done with strife. 

 I cultivate my own few joys far from this culture's buzzing noise. 

 Colonnade and marketplace, fame's small change and money's race, 

 academe's cold haughty tower -- have no meaning, hold no power. 

 Letting go of shoulds and oughts, 

 I concentrate on greener thoughts 

 and find as I fulfill my soul that things spin calmly in control, 

 that though events conspire still, 

 they tend to bend towards my will. 

 No greater cause achieves the measure 

 than that of my own reasoned pleasure." 

 - Peter Saint-Andre, In the Garden

Print Available - HERE 

Mourning Dove

“I hold it true that thoughts are things 

Endowed with bodies, breath, and wings, 

And that we send them forth to fill 

The world with good results - or ill. 

 That which we call our secret thought 

Speeds to the earth's remotest spot, 

And leaves its blessings or its woes 

Like tracks behind it as it goes. 

 It is God's law. Remember it 

In your still chamber as you sit 

With thoughts you would not dare have known, 

And yet made comrades when alone. 

 These thoughts have life; and they will fly 

And leave their impress by-and-by, 

Like some marsh breeze, whose poisoned breath 

Breathes into homes its fevered breath. 

 And after you have quite forgot 

Or all outgrown some vanished thought, 

Back to your mind to make its home, 

A dove or raven, it will come. 

 Then let your secret thoughts be fair; 

They have a vital part and share 

In shaping worlds and moulding fate -- 

God's system is so intricate.” 

 ― Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Print Available - HERE 

Be Grateful

Be grateful for the kindly friends 

that walk along your way; 

 Be grateful for the skies of blue 

that smile from day to day; 

 Be grateful for the health you own, 

the work you find to do, 

 For round about you there are men less fortunate than you. 

 Be grateful for the growing trees, 

the roses soon to bloom, 

 The tenderness of kindly hearts 

that shared your days of gloom; 

 Be grateful for the morning dew, 

the grass beneath your feet, 

The soft caresses of your babes and all their laughter sweet. 

Acquire the grateful habit, 

learn to see how blest you are, 

How much there is to gladden life, 

how little life to mar! 

And what if rain shall fall today 

and you with grief are sad; 

Be grateful that you can recall the joys that you have had.

- Edgar Guest



Print Available - HERE 

Dream-Dust

Gather out of star-dust, 

Earth-dust, 

Cloud-dust, 

Storm-dust, 

And splinters of hail, 

One handful of dream-dust, 

Not for sale.

 ― Langston Hughes

Have you read this poem before? 

 I just read it this morning ...... and it really spoke to me.

We all need a handful of dream-dust!!

My interpretation of dream-dust is that little sprinkle of confidence in your mind that you can actually attain your dreams!  I'm not sure if that is the way he meant it or if he meant it in terms of sleep.  

I Am Never Done With Looking

There are things you can’t reach. But 

You can reach out to them, and all day long. 

 The wind, the bird flying away. 
The idea of God. 

 And it can keep you busy as anything else, 
and happier.

 I look; morning to night I am never done with looking. 

 Looking I mean not just standing around, but standing around 

As though with your arms open.

~ Mary Oliver

Aptitude To Fly

A power of Butterfly must be - 

The Aptitude to fly 

Meadows of Majesty concedes 

And easy Sweeps of Sky -

~  Emily Dickinson

I need an ID on this little guy.  

This one is a first for me. 
An Eastern Pine Elfin perhaps?  

Nightshade

Before the beginning of years 

There came to the making of man 

Time, with a gift of tears; 

Grief, with a glass that ran; 

Pleasure, with pain for leaven; 

Summer, with flowers that fell; 

Remembrance, fallen from heaven, 

And madness risen from hell; 

Strength without hands to smite; 

Love that endures for a breath; 

Night, the shadow of light, 

 And Life, the shadow of death.

~Algernon Charles Swinburne

This is my first time reading anything by this author and I think I could probably read this poem for years and find something "revealing" in it each time I read it.  Sometimes it's like that .... sometimes things just speak to me... is it ever that way with you?

The image is that of the Nightshade family of wildflowers.  My Field Guide to Wildflowers tells me it's called by several names:

Climbing Nightshade, Bittersweet Nightshade and Deadly Nightshade. 

Print Available - HERE 

 

Touch us Gently

TOUCH us gently, Time!

 Let us glide adown thy stream 

 Gently,—as we sometimes glide 

Through a quiet dream. 

Humble voyagers are We, 

Husband, wife, and children three—

 (One is lost,—an angel, fled 

 To the azure overhead.)

Touch us gently, Time!

 We ’ve not proud nor soaring wings: 

 Our ambition, our content, 

 Lies in simple things. 

Humble voyagers are We, 

 O’er Life’s dim, unsounded sea, 

Seeking only some calm clime;— 

Touch us gently, gentle Time!

 ~ Barry Cornwall

About the image:  A winter wildflower 

About the poem:  Barry Cornwall is the pseudonym for Bryan Procter an English poet.

This is my first exposure to his poems and this one has captured my heart.  

A Leaf Affair

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.

~  L.M. Montgomery 

Autumn

the time of year

when the leaves

grab hold

of

my 

heart 


 

I Am Rich with Autumn's Gold

I am rich today with autumn's gold,

All that my covetous hands can hold;

Frost-painted leaves and goldenrod,

A goldfinch on a milkweed pod,

Huge golden pumpkins in the field

With heaps of corn from a bounteous yield,

Golden apples heavy on the trees

Rivaling those of Hesperides,

Golden rays of balmy sunshine spread

Over all like butter on warm bread;

And the harvest moon will this night unfold

The streams running full of molten gold.

Oh, who could find a dearth of bliss

With autumn glory such as this!

- Gladys Harp

Ladybug - Leaf Traveler

Print Available - HERE 


One Step at a Time

by Joseph Morris

In the morning with the journey 
all before us on the road,

It takes courage to begin, that is sure;

For the first step is the hardest, 
and we always think the load

May be greater than we've power to endure.

When the first mile lies behind us we can say, 
"Now that is done,

And the second and the third will soon be past."

So we trudge on through the noontime, and the setting of the sun

Finds us coming to our stopping-place at last.

When a man would climb a mountain he's appalled to see the length

Of the slope that reaches up into the sky;

But he starts, and with the climbing he will find he's gained the strength

To attain the very top, however high.

For the climbing of a mountain takes but one step at a time--

Who has courage to do that will reach the goal;

He will stand upon Life's summit and will know that joy sublime

Which is his alone who dares to prove his soul.

Summer Yearning

The pure, the beautiful, the bright,
That stirred our hearts in youth,
The impulse to a wordless prayer,
The dreams of love and truth,
The longings after something lost,
The spirit's yearning cry,
The strivings after better hopes,
These things can never die.
~Sarah Doudney