Photo by Denise

Good Morning by Mary Oliver

 

Bless the Notebook that I always carry in my pocket.

And the pen.

Bless the words with which I try to say

What I see, think or feel.

With gratitude for the grace of the earth.

The expected and the exception, both.

For all the hours I have been given

To be in this world.

 

 

The multiplicity of forms! The hummingbird,

the fox, the raven, the sparrow hawk, the otter,

the dragonfly, the water lily! And

on and on. It must be a great disappointment

to God if we are not dazzled at least ten

times a day.  — Excerpt from “Good Morning” by Mary Oliver, in Blue Horses — Poetry selection by Amy

 

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“If faith puts us on the road, hope keeps us there.” Rev. William Sloane Coffin — Photo and reflection by Mary W.

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New View — Photo and original poem by Amy W.

I never noticed how some magnolia

extend their lowest limb

in a grand sweeping gesture

of welcome.

Usually I look up, drawn to the vast spread,

imagining the hearty climb, view from the top.

But today I accepted the invitation

to sit on its steadiness, feet dangling just above the roots,

to discover the breeze from inside

this shelter of ease.

 

 

It’s all here: lichen, fern, moss, bug with crimson shell.

Oh, if only I could read those broken lines of bark

like an unveiled palm:

Tell me true, your life, and mine.

 

(Note: As I left my spot on the limb and began to walk from the allee,

a bluebird flew in front of me, across the grass, and landed on the lowest limb

of the nearest tree. A second one soon joined.

“They know,” I said to myself. “They know.”) — Amy Webb, May 22, 2015

 

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               The sweet smell of Spring- Magnolia …Photos and reflection by Denise

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Trees by Joyce Kilmer — Photo (below) and poetry selection by Jill

I think that I shall never see 


A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest 


Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; 
 

A tree that looks at God all day, 


And lifts her leafy arms to pray;


 A tree that may in Summer wear 


A nest of robins in her hair; 
 


Upon whose bosom snow has lain; 


Who intimately lives with rain. 
 


Poems are made by fools like me, 


But only God can make a tree. 
 — “Trees” was originally published in Trees and Other Poems. Joyce Kilmer, 1914.

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Surprising displays of the union of natural and human-made beauty combined today to have me in awe! A basket hoisted to the heavens  in a grand old tree —  but why, oh, why? And Baryshnikov dancing with the wind and Spanish moss- such grace and harmony! — Photos and reflection by Nancy L.