A GREATER GOOD

I sing a song of sadness

But the sadness has something

Of the good within it -

And is of a greater good.

______________________________

One more poem before I say good-bye for a while.

-Margie xo

EVEN IN DARKNESS

Even when darkness sinks over my soul

You bring me stars for my skies

I am never utterly lost in the night

While trust still shines in your eyes

And when the hours of the dark are past

When dawn breaks over my soul anew

Your smiles are my sunrise, your voice

The birds singing

Your kisses sweet dew.

____________________________________________

Dear friends and readers, I shall be away from blogging for a while, probably a month or so. Till I return, I wish all of you wonderful and happy days!

I shall miss all of you!

Love and light ... Margie

THE CALL OF SPRING ...

He calls to me, I know it now

That bird with cheery song

To let my duties wait awhile

And come, the day is long

He's telling me it's springtime

There are violets in the wood

I feel I can't refuse to go

I don't see how I could!

Out where the shadowy vistas are

Aglow with sunshine gold

The forest flowers are carpeting

The spongy leafy mold

Oh, I must see it all again

And hear the brooklets sing!

I cannot still this heart of mine

For it is answering Spring!

I BELIEVE ...

It does not matter when I go

Nor how nor why

Each day a million roses blow

A million die ...

For every bird that lives to sing

A song is stilled ...

I go ... a brief remembering

My place is filled

I'll live and love and dine and drink

The while I may

And when my number's called

I'll say "O.K!"

SCHOOLTIME

Whenever on fall-tingle mornings you suddenly hear
The bluebonnet matins of eight-year olds grow near
Then nearer your pictureframe window that opens wide ...
On a frost-fingered world of saffron and gold outside ...

Whenever you see diminutive caravans swinging
Red satchels of books and boxes of lunch and
Flinging their Lilliput missles of laughter toward heaven
And you ... whose eyes fill up with revery (and dew)

Wherever, whenever you watch schoolchildren pass
Whose gay-goose litanies arise en masse
Remember that blocks away or miles away
Are teachers with halos of chalk and feet of clay!

FALLEN LEAVES

There came a perfect day when I was ten

An idle Autum day of faultless sky

I clutched a shining dime that I could spend

For any longed-for thing it would buy

A lovely stillness lay along the street

The sun embraced me in its golden span

The fallen leaves addressed my eager feet

And moved in russet showers as I ran

That perfect day will never come again

And yet I spent it at its proper time

With all the wisdom of a child of ten

As wisely as I spent the shining dime.

AFTER TREES - THESE!

Musings on Trees and These!

These Friends!

A forest of Trees is a portfolio of Friends

Durability, strength, sometimes rough, burly

But how dependable! Graceful, adaptable

Quiet in a listening attitude of understanding

Inspiring, tender

A forest of Trees is a portfolio of Friends

May I be ever in the midst of Trees - and These ...

When God had finished making Trees

I think He set out to work on These

These things that we call Friends

The beauty and the strength of wood

Dependable and good ...

Of oak and birch and balsam pine

To these, I liken friends of mine

Of leaves, the charm and added grace

Like tenderness of lady's lace

And quiet understanding, proven

As green-grown branches, closely woven

Last, knowing These are always there

Root, branch and trunk, when leaves fall bare!

When God had finished making Trees

Love and Perfection gave us These

These things that we call FRIENDS!

____________________________________________

Photo courtesy of Lorraine at:

http://wordsflowandstuffl.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much, Lorraine!

PROMISES

What our love has done for us
I cannot even begin to speak
Without trembling ...
You and I have left a fading world
Smog-crushed
Power-crowded ... dust-spun
You and I have left this kind of world
For an infinite one ...
Spinning our circles of earth
And moon into galaxies
And hurling our lives into
Light years of reveries ...
I have only begun to envision
Our possible place
A someday miracle of eternal time
And space ...
Though it begins with such immediate smiles
Your eyes ... a leaf ... your lips on my cheek
Its promise is so boundless
Love ... I dare not speak.

MEMORABILIA

In years to come

There'll be no letters

Yellowed at the edge

To save for generations

Yet unborn ...

There'll be no diaries

Left for them to see

How great-grandfather spent his day

Or worked his way

On freighter ships

Across the seas ...

No love notes

Hidden in a secret drawer

Tied with a faded ribbon

To read again once more

Technology is close at hand

And we no longer understand

The pen ...

How deep the loss

Of all those yesterdays

With joy and sorrow

If they are all forgotten

By tomorrow.

INTO THE DISTANCE

When I curl myself
Into the far-away monuments of my mind
Built from long dark halls of yearning ...
Stretching into the high paths against the blue hills
Of learning ...
This is where I hold my dreams for myself to see ...
Of the far-away long-away mists of me
Moving into the distance
Myself walks
With the perfect poise of age and grace
Into the clouded mystery
Of eternal time
And space ...
Here are my hands reaching
And here is my heart groping
The summer sun and straw-flowered kiss ...
Share all of the dreaming caught in this
Great scope of memory
And all the far-away long-away misted hopes
Of what will be ...
Here is where I curl into myself and embrace
All of the harbored calm
Of eternal time
And space.
-----------------------------------------------------
This picture was taken on my last trip to San Francisco in Feb.

RAIN IS

Rain is for remembering

Its little voices fall

Soft as the memories

They recall ...

My mother used to say

"This is a hot cinnamom roll day"

I'd watch her strong hands shape each bun

And poke in raisins one by one

And soon their sweet spiced smell would stain

The kitchen window washed with rain ...

And then sometimes my father would say

"Let's take a walk this rainy day"

And we would set out hand in hand

Across the grey bedraggled land

We'd turn our faces to the skies

And let the rain fall on our eyes

And breathe in air all scented sweet

By rain-soaked grass beneath our feet ...

Rain is for remembering

Another spring

Another spring

SWEET MAGNOLIA (To Mama)

A sweet magnolia smell reminds me of you

Somewhat like a painting you once drew

Your ivory soft petals ... my heart ... they caress

As your soul went through me

When you were laid to rest

I call for you ... my magnolia friend

When life's path turns dark

Ivory soft petals comfort me ... my mama ... my heart!

INNOCENCE OF CHILDHOOD (To my beloved children!)

She toddles through the lush green grass

Upon her tippy toes

And falls upon her padded bottom

She giggles as she goes ...

A daisy chain begins to grow

Upon the field of green

She picks the daisies with her toes

And drops them in the stream ...

She tilts her head to gaze upon

A sky of azure blue

And dreams of dreams within the clouds

As only children do.

______________________________________________________

Photo courtesy of Lorraine at: http://wordsflowandstuffl.blogspot.com

Thank you, Lorraine!

A PEACEFUL DAY

The day is crowned with peace

I rejoice in this

And find myself at home.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear readers and friends, I am heading to the mountains tomorrow morning to meet some friends and go cross country skiing. I will return on Sunday. So, till I visit you again, take good care and be well. I wish you all much joy!

-Margie xo

I WILL NOT

I will not grow old gracefully

No! I never will!

I cannot wait for spring

To look for daffodil

I do not care at all

If I am gray or bent

But I will never while I live

Be spent

Oh I will ever strive

To have a young heart still

I will not grow old gracefully

No! I never will!

A WOMAN'S WAY

She wears her life's true love upon

Her breast - a gem - magnificent

And cherishes with all her heart

Its beauty and wonderment.

But also in some box she keeps

Bright colored beads she likes to own -

The light - the brief - the little loves

Of vanished girlhood she has known.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Photo courtesy of Lorraine at: http://coloursandstuffl.blogspot.com/

Thank you so much Lorraine, for sharing your wonderful photos with me!

MY HEART IS HIGH

My heart is high with meadow larks

My heart is winging hills

My heart is where the tallest trees

Touch heaven's window-sills

My heart is wide with rainbow fields

My heart draws rivers in

My heart is reaching stretching far

Where ocean shores begin

My heart is deep with daffodils

My heart has songs to sing

My heart is deep my heart is wide

My heart is high with spring.

WEATHER SPY

I have known the sting of winter

on the warmest day in June

Despite what the weather prophet

quoted from his chart

I have caught the scent of lilacs

in December - Now I know

That the season's

in the rhythm

of the beating

of my heart.

...............................................................................................................................

Photo courtesy: per orginal copyright at: www.cardensdesign.com/photography/nature.php

THE MIRACLE CHILD (Every New-Born)

Oh, that your eyes

May see the blue

Of skies

And you may know

The sound of rain

And hear the wind

Against the window-pane

Oh, that your heart

May feel the

Flying souls

Of flowers

Through the air

Blowing across

The hills and plains

Which like a prayer

Sink deep

Into the very soul

Of all things

Oh, Miracle-Child!

May your heart

And mind and soul

Soar upon

Inspiration's wings!

Towards God and Man

And Earth and Sky

Where holy kings

Have made the soul

A harp which sings!

CAN'T YOU HEAR ME CALLING?

Press your tender lips to the passing breeze

and feel my kiss

Catch a falling drying leaf

and hold my hand

Look to the sky full of clouds

and see my eyes

Dip your loving fingers in winter's stream

and touch my tear-soaked cheek

Watch fall giving way to winter

and know how I long for you.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Heading to San Francisco on Feb. 14th and will be gone for a week.

I won't be posting again till Feb. 22nd.

Wishing all that celebrate Valentine's day a day full of love and joy!

Take care dear readers ... I shall miss you while I am gone!

-Margie xo

GARNERED

If I should know that death will come for me
Before another summer's blossoms shed
With witchery of purple, blue, and red
Their sudden beauty's spell on bush and tree
If I should know that I shall never see
The radiance by a summer rainbow shed
I would not have you grieve when I am dead
Believing me denied such luxury ...

For I have loved this fleeting life so well
Its color, fragrance, joys of night and day
So conscious have been of every leaf that fell
Responsive to each birdsong of its May
That I have stored rich memories to be
My dream of life through all eternity ...

OLD THINGS

I love old things

Weather-beaten houses with moss-grown roofs

Where memories of generations cling

Old china fragile as the lily hands

That painted blossoms on it long ago

Brasses from those dimly lighted shops

Where skull-capped ancients peddled hammered ware ...

Old books where scattered margin notes

Are indices to histories never told

Old people who have aged like ivory

Made beautiful by time's poetic touch

Old loves that remember music

Are sweeter as their memory grows old

And pictures on whose colors time has laid

A hand that tempers them to golden tones ...

SNOW

The snow is so beautiful, God

it turns the marsh grass

into plumed scepters ...

bends the pine low

frosts the hedge

the sky is the color of the inside of a shell ...

a lone duck flies by

with a sense of urgency

ice floes drift on a pewter sea ...

and new snow falls

silently

oh, God, how can I bear to die

and leave your lovely earth?

WINGED

I held a part of Heaven in my hand today

Because I climbed a shining hill

(You of the valley will not understand

But if you've lived on mountain-tops you will)

No mortal stature ever reached so high

But I was all there is of earth and space

Because I climbed a hill and touched the sky

And felt its blueness on my lifted face

I was a God-child with new wings to wear

New wings so wide their feathers brushed the dawn

They silvered all of everything: the air

I breathed ... the living ground I stood upon

How dark the world! How dull all worldly things!

Today I wore an angel's lilting wings!

WHEN YOU ARE NEAR

The peace

that comes

when you are near

pleases and eases the soul.

TREES

You cannot know the loveliness of trees

Who say, "How beautiful!" and pass them by

Not knowing the great comradeship of these

Most noble presences of earth and sky ...

You must have lain beneath their arms at dark

Breathed in their fragrance with the morning air

Felt living coolness underneath their bark

And shared their stillness as an hour of prayer.

HAPPINESS

I hate to let go of a day

even though it is quite outworn and thin

and dusk is creeping, cool and shadowy

through the widening seams ...

Tomorrow I will gladly face the welcome task

of breaking in a new day

shaping it to me

stretching the narrow hours

to cover the length of my happiness

the breadth of my sorrow ...

But now, I hate to let go of the old day

so completely my size

and so threadbare that I can scarcely hold it together

another moment!

But familiar

and so very comfortable ...

THE OLD MAN

While the roses were blooming

And the grass was green

My old friend died

In a place unseen ...

He was getting on in years

He was eighty-three

A man of truth and wisdom

As hard as the old oak tree ...

His friends were the animals

He used to watch them play

And those animals were there

The day he passed away ...

In the middle of the meadow

Near the tree line end

The old man sat down to think

But he never got up again ...

Now our friend is gone

And as I walk by

I see the look of sorrow

And a tear in every eye!

UNDERSTANDING

When I see a red bird

Perched upon a tree

In a bleak December

Singing lustily

I won't say it's happy

Though its song seems so

For I sing, too, on dark days

And I ought to know ...

Know when words ring gaily out

To a listening throng

There may be a sad note

Threading through that song

Or a heart be broken

Though a laugh is heard

So it is with tenderness

I salute the bird.

DADDY

Daddy, let's go for a walk

Daddy, kiss me good night

Daddy, read me a bedtime story

Daddy, sing me a lullaby

Daddy, I'm going to school now

Daddy, I fell down

Daddy, help me up

Daddy, did you know how much I love you?

Daddy, please don't die

Daddy, don't leave me ...

Daddy ...

... Good-bye ...

-----------------------------------------------

My daddy died in 1974, I miss him so!

MY MOTHER'S HANDS

My mother's hands
that held her belly tight
waiting for the day
with love like golden light.

My mother's hands
the day I was born
that held me to her breast
though her body was worn and torn ...

My mother's hands
that kept me safe at night
took away all the nightmares
and soothed away the fright ...

My mother's hands
that washed away the pain
my tears were her tears
like drops of salty rain ...

My mother's hands
like God's hands above
will forever protect me
with their soft and gentle love!

---------------------------------------------
My mom died in 1998 but I always feel her love for me!
She is so close in spirit!

IN MEMORIAM

The shadow by my side

is gone

the warm nose resting on my knee .

My fur-ruffed friend

who met me by the door

followed me from room to room

and floor to floor.

We dwelled together

on that rare-found plain

where animals and people

are as one

he was as much a member

of the human race

as our family that he'd loved

since he was young.

A bond between us

woven close of love

happiness and sorrow will survive.

And may we meet

someday beyond this life

where dogs die much too soon

and leave their masters

still alive.

-------------------------------------------------

Sammy, who is in the picture, died in 2005, he is missed dearly!

A WIDE BED

A warm back in a wide bed

while heavy snow through the silent woods

has curtained off the smallest sounds

beyond the dark ...

A light caress in a warm bed

while winter wind with a low laugh

invites the trees in their downy dress

to share a dance ...

The length of you and a deep love

while snow, wind and a winter night

are locked outside beyond the warmth

of a wide bed.

BEAUTIFUL FRAIL THINGS

I have drunk joy today
I have mastered fate
I have known what it is
To conquer and create ...

Sometimes I ask myself
After days like this
"Have I no longer need
of his kiss?"

But when I see tired eyes
Quickened with light
As a lover's footstep
Sounds through the night ...

Or when I hear a little child
Laughing alone
Telling what it might be
When it is grown ...

Then I no longer doubt
That my love must be
Beautiful frail things
Have need of me!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It's been so long since I have posted or visited any of my special blogger friends. (So sorry!)

I have not forgotten any of you and came on today to wish all of you a most Wonderful New Year!

I hope 2010 brings each one of you many blessings and much joy!

I miss all of you!

I will return but just do not know when as I am still not feeling quite up to par!

The picture I've posted here was taken at Thanksgiving when my family was in Vegas.

We had a wonderful time there!

Well, I must go as I want to get out and enjoy this beautiful Colorado day!

Take care my friends and enjoy each and every moment of your life!

~Love and light~

Margie