Garden
Ode to a Ginkgo’s Leaves
O yellow, sometimes e’en
gold, but with a tinge of slightest green,
undulating before my gaze,
each leaf’s changing
as the sun o’er my shoulder
leans, o you, dear leaves, doth arrest
me in my tracks, because
there is something
about your countenance,
which makes me believe you once
cradled my Savior’s
Shadow as He walked past.
John 11:35
("Jesus Wept")
All the people whom
Jesus helped – the little people,
the poor, the outcasts,
the marginalized, almost all of
whom are unknown and
unreferenced in the Gospels, those
people, these people,
became like drops of moisture
in the quiet, sweet waters
of the 23rd Psalm.
In their anonymity, they
assumed their place
in the community of saints,
and outward they
rippled over all of Palestine,
shouting hosannas in
the present tense of “I AM”
rhyme.
Sandra Elizabeth Daylily
(“Do Not Be Afraid, Mary,
You Have Found Favor with God”) *
Ah, I have
glimpsed you, before
overnight you
disappear into the
hill country of
Judea, as if
your essence could
ever possibly
be ephemeral,
as if your beauty and
the fruit of your
womb, Jesus, could
ever fear!
Psalm 23:2
(“He Leadeth Me beside the Still Waters”)
From what “still waters”
did this face wash the sleep
out of its eyes? What
“Pool of Siloam” was found, *
whence a daylily could
find forgiveness, and in raising
its head up from fresh
dewdrops – know its beauty
was no longer blind?
Fences
Some people build fences
to keep others out,
while others build fences
to keep themselves in.
All that can be done is to
gently place a gift
at their gate, and hope
somehow it is seen, as
through pretty, pastel curtains
they discreetly peek…