Hope
Winter Ode
O’ hardened hearts,
Do you despair as if gone fore’er
Is your spring, and as if
Your fate is to eternally
Hang flash-frozen in drips
Attached to this winter field’s
Meanderings?
O’ hardened hearts,
Nothing stays frozen fore’er,
E’en if it be on a
Branch which someone
Happened by, reminding them
Of what they want not
To remember.
The Tree of Life
It shone in gold, but
Not just typical gold, but rather
Otherworldly, ornamental,
Finest gold, relocated
From the Garden of
Eden, an earthly
Tree of Life set free
From the consequences
Of the bondage
Of Original Sin, and
Now able to renounce
Night and to proclaim
Daybreak – and to
Promise each weary soul
That hope lives and
Its green shoot glistens.
In Thanksgiving
And so this rose
Is offered thee at the behest of
The night’s mood.
It has arrived from a
Distant winter’s clime, where
Despite frost and tundra,
It has at the touch of
Truth bloomed.
Ode to the Bearer of the Holy Spirit
The candle you
Hold is faithful, its light immune
To being dimmed.
Awash I am
This desert night,
But from afar appears
Your face,
Carrying in your
Caress the eternal
Antidote to
My flesh’s whims.
Ode to a Ginkgo’s Leaves
Click for meditationRegarding "Ode to a Ginkgo’s Leaves"
The ginkgo tree is originally a
Native to China, and fossils of this tree,
Very similar to the present living
Species, go at least as far back
As 170 million years. To say, therefore,
That the ginkgo is hardy is
An understatement! In fact,
The gingko has even
Proven resistant to the
Atomic bomb! On August 6, 1945,
The United States dropped
An atomic bomb on
Hiroshima, Japan. There
Were six ginkgo trees near the
Blast center, and they are
Still alive today! Because of their
Resilience, the ginkgo has
Become known as
The “Bearer of Hope.”
And so when I was in
Sammamish, Washington
Recently, and was watching
My granddaughter
Perform some lacrosse
Drills outside a local school,
I noticed that the
Landscaping included some
Small-to-medium sized
Ginkgo trees. . . I immediately
Went over and stood
Amongst them, and let their
Ancient, fan-shaped leaves dwell
Upon my shoulders.
It was like a spiritual
Moment, and I felt their
Healing grace at once. It was as if
I had been a bystander in
Jerusalem 2000 years
Ago when Jesus entered the
City on a donkey, and
His followers laid palms
Along the route of His travel.
Such is the holiness of
The ginkgo that, in my opinion, its
Golden leaves could have
Equally served to cradle and give
Reverence to the
Footsteps of Jesus.
Believing is seeing, and
The light of hope
Is everywhere. That is
What the message of this
Poem Is about.
Leo Carroll
December 12, 2022
O yellow, sometimes e’en
Gold, but with a tinge of slightest green,
Undulating before my gaze,
Each leaf 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.