WHEN .....

When. Tell me when... 

 In wisps of mango and stellar blue. 

When will summer breathe again?

When  rains lash down, will  Jays hunt  again. Brilliant in their blue leisure suits , like used car salesmen, flashing against  languorous  trees.

                                                     

 Floating petals in the wind. When will they dream? Do they long for sleep like the trees?

                                                  

Fatigued with their lot in life. Leaves lament . In  swirling puddles.

When? When will they rest?  No fanfare. No cheers. Just quiet softness till called again.

Only the Jays. Selling cars in the cool evenings. Loud and long. They do not sleep.        

 They fly. 

                          Emissary ...........

When will He call  .......

Will we long for dreams.  

. 

When we breathe  His name. In the hush. In  last light.

When. Tell me when... 

 

                                               In wisps of mango and stellar blue. 

                                               Over the rush of blue wings.

When our hearts  linger, and long for...to sleep no more.

Tell me. When will summer breathe again?

 "In one hand he holds deep caves and caverns. In the other hand grasps the high mountains...."-Psalm 95:4

 Photographs 2024

LINGERING in SEPTEMBER....

SEPTEMBER MIDNIGHT ( written in March 1914) 

                                                                                by Sara Teasdale ( 1884-1933)

Lyric night of the lingering Indian Summer

Shadowy fields that are scentless but full of singing

Never a bird, but the passionless chant of insects,

Ceaseless. Insistent.

The grasshopper's horn, and far off, high in the maples,

The wheel of a locust, leisurely grinding the silence,

Under a moon, waning and worn, broken,

Tired of summer....

Let me remember you, little voices of insects.....

Weeds in the moonlight, fields that are tangled with asters.

Let me remember you , soon winter will be upon us

Snow-hushed and heavy.....

Over my soul, murmur your mute benediction

While I gaze, oh fields that rest after harvest

As those who part look long in the eyes they lean to

Lest they forget them........

Photographs 2024
 

THE NOM NOM EFFECT

He came one year. He's never left. He eats. And eats. And eats. One year he ate all the Nettles. Another year he ate all the ivy. Another year he stripped the cherry tree of its leaves. We called him  Nom Nom.

He came in the spring. He came in the fall. And the winter. And the summer. To eat and sleep. He feels safe here.

He comes to eat the  Cosmos when it blooms on the hill, in the early autumn wind.

He is Nom Nom. Eater of things. Big doughy eyes. Eater of apples that lie on the ground. He is Nom Nom.

"He made my feet like the feet of a deer, and set me secure on the heights..." -2 Samuel 22:34

His stomach rumbles. He chews  and chews and burps . then he chews some more.

Nom Nom finds the best places. To watch. From the hill close to the house. He eats apples and plums closest to him. 

His antlers fall. And grow. And grow again. He gets fat on the garden.

One summer, Nom Nom  ate all the beans that were planted. He would roll in the plants. He liked to snooze in their green leaves. He ate  and burped and left jelly beans.

Anemone blooms in September.  Nom Nom comes. He doesn't like the Anemone. But he likes the leaves.

He chews while he  sleeps. Nibbles on thorns and blackberries. Leaves his jelly beans , like so many little gifts. They're all dark chocolate.....

When Fall burns with hot sun and Velvet Queen sunflowers, Nom Nom comes. He drinks out of water basins  filled to the brim.

He doesn't seem to mind the visiting cats. They don't mind him. Sometimes he stands with his feet in the grey water basin. I imagine Nom Nom is thinking it's a spa day.

It's said that Nom Nom has  been spotted elsewhere in town. But he always ends up here. 

Eating things and making dark chocolate  jelly beans......

 

Most days Nom Nom  stares in the door and chews his cud and burps. We watch. He watches us. We look for him. I like to imagine he looks for us. We fill up the water basin and sweep  jelly beans.

 

Nom Nom leaves full of applesauce and plum jam. Sometimes he comes at dusk. I can see him from the window. And everything is right in the world.....

"As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God..."- Psalm 42:1

Photographs 2024