Three Dashes of Poetry

In honor of April's being poetry month, my good friend and fellow blogger Hamlette has been hosting a grand month long celebration! (Be sure to check it all out HERE.) Hence, I'm here to contribute my official post. :)

#1

The adventure of our lives brims over with great fluctuations and contrasts and sometimes everything happens at once. As I'm in the midst of wedding planning, it seems that every day is also freshly and visibly bringing my great-grandma closer to the hour when she will stand face-to-face with her Lord in the heavenly spaces.

And the thought of that glory is enough to take my breath.

At 103, my great-grandma has been gifted with an incredibly full and amazing life. An artist, adventurer, world traveler, music and history lover, and a voracious reader, she's an amazing woman, her memory filled with marvelous stories. I wrote the following short poem for her a few years ago. Including it here seems fitting:

Moments in the Hundred Years of a Painter
A bright mind and a long life--God has given--
And a deft hand--catching vignettes
Of the cosmic strokes of the Master.
A spinning wheel--done motionless.
Barns--sleepy and still; brown, orange, and red--
Green in a foreground tree.
A little girl, bright-haired under scarlet flowers.
Mountains, rivers.
The little girl again--in an orchid hat.
A small boy--red with delicious sauce.
Dashes of light, captured in color,
Vignettes--small corners on the great canvas.
A long life, a bright mind, and a deft hand--
Has the Master given.
Heidi Peterson

#2

My second contribution comes from Dante's Divine Comedy. I first ran across it in one of my favorite essays in The Christian Imagination edited by Leland Ryken and I promptly read it so many times I memorized it. It inspired me to read the entire Comedy, which I'm now so glad I did! I don't agree with all the doctrines and positions in the Comedy, but (allowing for some literary license) it's deep and brilliant and justly deserves its masterpiece status. This passage is absolutely thrilling and always convicting. I'm including the short intro from the essay by Janine Langan:

"The Divine Comedy records the imaginative reeducation of a very great Christian poet, Dante, by a very great pagan poet, Virgil. Virgil's first lesson is a blunt one (Inferno ii, 43-49):

"If I have understood what you have said"
Replied the shade of that great-hearted one,
"Your soul has been assailed by cowardice,
Which often weighs so heavily on a man--
Distracting him from honorable trial--
As phantoms frighten beasts when shadows fall."

#3

And.... there are so many many other dearly loved poems I'm really at a dreadful loss what to highlight for my third, hence I'll leave you with one of my best loved, Tip Top Favorites Of All Time:

"All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken.
The crownless again shall be king."
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Tell me! Are either of those second two your favorites as well? :)

Blue & Green and Some Happinesses of May

Following is one of my favorite short children’s poems. It was going through my head again a couple days ago as I was doing chores and looking up at the nearest thorny locust trees just unfurling their ferny fronds in the early sunset. I love those trees… (the leaves, not the thorns). Sometimes they look like something from a picture in Africa—or a South American jungle—and it’s such a pleasure to have them in our own backyard! Anyhow, they inspired me to run in and bring out my camera—and here, too, is the poem:

"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 ~

And some of the Maytime happinesses I'm having…

Driving roads thick with living, early summer green while running errands.

My rosebush blooming, deep pink and fragrant.

Hot pink geraniums in a hanging pot.

A wonderful, long, heart-to-heart phone call, and encouraging emails with patient and loving friends.

Watching the old Buccaneers tv show with my family.

Starting a book I’ve never read before on the recommendation of another friend.

Dreaming of mountains and wide open spaces.

Pictures of turquoise water:

This quote from C.S. Lewis yet again:

“Joy is distinct not only from pleasure in general but even from aesthetic pleasure. It must have the stab, the pang, the inconsolable longing.”

Pondering and clinging to this verse from Zephaniah: “The Lord your God in your midst, The Mighty One, will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17

Good dark coffee in the mornings and Oolong tea.

Listening to good music while washing dishes:

And this just makes me smile...

What are some of your favorite Maytime delights?

Thanksgiving

Thank God for life!

There! A meadowlark sings! Do you hear it?

For the sigh of the heart,

The contagion of laughter,

For the longing apart,

For the joy that comes after,

For the things that we feel

When we clasp, when we kneel—

Thank God for the sharing,

The caring, the giving,

For the things of Life’s living.

Thank God for the riches

Of flowers in the ditches,

For the roof from the weather,

The fireside together,

For the step at the portal,

For the love we have treasured,

For something unmeasured,

For something immortal,

For our grief, for our mirth,

For heavens on earth,

For the things of the spirit!

There! A meadowlark sings! Do you hear it?

~Douglas Malloch, 1877-1938

All seasons shall be sweet...

We’re into the second week of Christmas (!)

and Happy New Year!!!

~

“Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee,

Whether the summer clothe the general earth

With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing

Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch

Of mossy apple-tree, while the nigh thatch

Smokes in the sun-thaw; whether the eve-drops fall

Heard only in the trances of the blast,

Or if the secret ministry of frost

Shall hang them up in silent icicles,

Quietly shining to the quiet Moon.”

Frost at Midnight – S.T. Coleridge

~

Two Facets of Autumn...

I'm working on trip photos, and in the next week or so hope to share some! In the meanwhile, two of my current–and contiguous–perspectives on different aspects of this fine autumn season…

The Song of the Wayfaring Tree Fairy

My shoots are tipped with buds as dusty-grey

As ancient pilgrims toiling on their way.

Like Thursday's child with far to go, I stand,

All ready for the road to Fairyland;

With hood, and bag, and shoes, my name to suit,

And in my hand my gorgeous tinted fruit.

Cicely Mary Barker

And this one just had to be shared (the current Bertie quote I have going through my head); in my case, for "bracers" read "morning coffee"–strong and dark. :-)

...

“I reached out a hand from under the blankets, and rang the bell for Jeeves. 

“Good evening, Jeeves.” 

“Good morning, sir.” 

This surprised me. 

“Is it morning?” 

“Yes, sir.” 

“Are you sure? It seems very dark outside.” 

“There is a fog, sir. If you will recollect, we are now in autumn–season of mists and mellow fruitfulness.” 

“Oh? Yes. Yes, I see. Well, be that as it may, get me one of those bracers of yours, will you?” 

~ P.G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters ~