Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak
"Spacious Skies"
Showing posts with label Poem. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poem. Show all posts

Friday, May 12, 2023

Milford Sound, New Zealand - “The Sun Has Long Been Set”

 Psalm 113:3

From the rising of the sun to its setting
The name of the Lord is to be praised.



The Sun has Long been Set”

By William Wordsworth 

The sun has long been set,
  The stars are out by twos and threes,
The little birds are piping yet
  Among the bushes and trees;
There's a cuckoo, and one or two thrushes,
And a far-off wind that rushes,
And a sound of water that gushes,
And the cuckoo's sovereign cry
Fills all the hollow of the sky.
  Who would "go parading"
In London, "and masquerading,"
On such a night of June
With that beautiful soft half-moon, 
And all these innocent blisses?
On such a night as this is!


Friday, February 3, 2023

“The Woods are Lovely, Dark, and Deep”

 

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep. 

~ Robert Frost

Saturday, August 7, 2021

Lake Columbine - Fire and Ice


Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

By Robert Frost

Tuesday, July 6, 2021

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams

 


Annabel Lee
by Edgar Allan Poe

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this  maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
I and my Annabel Lee--
With a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me--
Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we--
Of many far wiser than we--
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee'
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride.
In her sepulchre there by the sea--
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Dedicated to my daughter
Crystal Michelle Fallin
June 19, 1984 - August 18, 2019


Friday, June 11, 2021

Shores Waterfront Park - The Tire Swing


 The Tire Swing

An old tire hanging
From the big ash tree,
Was always swinging
With my friends and me.

With an old piece of rope,
We hung it high,
All in the hope,
We could touch the sky.

We swung on that swing,
From dawn to dusk,
To that tire we would cling,
With all our trust.

Swinging up high,
Into the air,
Straight up our feet would go,
Without a care.

The days we spent,
In the shade of that tree,
Swinging for the sky,
So happily.

By Juan Olivarez 6/27/10

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."
Matthew 19:14 NIV

Wednesday, June 9, 2021

To A Butterfly


 To A Butterfly

I've watched you now a full half hour
Self-poised upon that yellow flower,
And, little Butterfly! indeed
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless!-not frozen seas
More motionless!-and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!

This plot of orchard-ground is ours;
My trees they are, my Sister's flowers;
Here rest your wings when they are weary,
Here lodge as in a sanctuary!
Come often to us, fear no wrong;
Sit near us on the bough!
We'll talk of sunshine and of song,
And summer days, when we were young;
Sweet childish days, that were as long
As twenty days are now.

By William Wordsworth 1807

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Ancient Mariner



"Farewell, farewell!  but this I tell
To thee, thou Wedding-Guest!
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.

The Mariner, whose eye is bright,
Whose beard with age is hoar,
Is gone; and now the Wedding-Guest
Turned from the bridegroom's door.

He went like one that hath been stunned,
And is of sense forlorn'
A sadder and a wiser man,
He rose the morrow morn."

Excerpts from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798)

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Could We with Ink the Ocean Fill...


Could we with ink the ocean fill;
And were the skies of parchment made;
Were every stalk on earth a quill'
And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Unknown

This is verse 3 of Frederick Lehman's hymn {The Love of God" (1917),  This verse is apparently an adapted translation of a Jewish poem by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai (1050).  It seems that the hymn-writer found it scribbled on the walls of a patient's room in an insane asylum after the death of its occupant.  Whatever its origins, it is a wonderful and unusually striking piece of devotional writing.

Thursday, April 29, 2021

Sound of the Sea




Sound of the Sea

The sea awoke at midnight from its sleep,
And round the pebbly beaches far and wide
I heard the first wave of the rising tide
Rush onward with uninterrupted sweep;
A voice out of the silence of the deep,
A sound mysteriously multiplied
As of a cataract from the mountain's side,
Or roar of winds upon a wooded steep.
So  comes to us at times, from the unknown
And inaccessible solitudes of being,
The rushing of the sea-tides of the soul;
And inspirations, that we deem our own,
Are some divine foreshadowing and foreseeing
Of things beyond our reason or control.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As if The Sea Should Part



As if the Sea should part
And sow a further Sea--
And that--a further--and the Three
but a presumption be--

Of Periods of Seas--
Unvisited of Shores--
Themselves the Vere of Seas to be--
Eternity--is Those--

By Emily Dickinson

Sunday, April 18, 2021

The Wild Flower's Song

 

The Wild Flower's Song

As I wandered the forest,
The green leaves among,
I heard aa Wild flower
Singing a song.

I slept in the earth
In the silent night,
murmur'd my fears
And I felt delight.

In the morning I went
As rosy as morn,
To seek for new joy;
But Oh! met with scorn.

~William Blake

Flowers of the Forest

 

To see a World in a Grain of sand
And a Heaven in a Wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hours.

~William Blake

Sunday, March 14, 2021

The Moon never Beams without bringing me Dreams

 


Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of Annabel Lee;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea,
But we loved with a love that was more than love--
I and my Annabel Lee--
With a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee,
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me, 
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me--
Yes!--that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we--
Of many far wiser than we--
And neither the angels in Heaven above
Nor the demons down under the sea
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, i lie down by the side
Of my darling--my daring--my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea--
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

By Edgar Allan Poe

Sunday, February 28, 2021

Hope is the Thing with Feathers


 Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul
And sings the tune without the words
And never stops at all.

~Emily Dickinson

Thursday, August 27, 2020

Find Rest in the Lord


 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you
and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble
in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matthew 11:28-29 NIV

Tuesday, September 3, 2019

“I am the Soft Stars that Shine at Night” - Loving Memory Crystal Michelle Fallin


Do Not Stand at my Grave and Weep

Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's rush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there; I did not die.

by Mary Elizabeth Frye

In Loving Memory
Crystal Michelle Fallin


Saturday, August 10, 2019

The Trees



The Trees


by Phillip Larkin


The trees are coming into leaf
Like something almost being said;
The recent buds relax and spread,
Their greenness is a kind of grief.


Is it that they are born again
And we grow old?  No, they de too,
Their yearly trick of looking new
Is written down in rings of grain.


Yet still the unresting castles thresh
In fullgrown thickness every May.
Last year is dead, they seem to say,
Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.




Mary Lee Smith-Brown with her granddaughter Angela in Cherokee County, Ga.  She loved the Smoky Mountains.  She had Cherokee Indian ancestors, Augusta Cole and Mourning Brown who lived in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.

Friday, August 9, 2019

Hymn to the Night



Hymn to the Night

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

I heard the trailing garments of the night
Sweep through her marble halls!
I saw her sable skirts all fringed with light
From the celestial walls!

I felt her presence by its spell of might,
Stoop o'er me from above
The calm, majestic presence of the Night,
As of the one I love.

I heard the sounds of sorrow and delight,
The manifold, soft chimes,
That fill the haunted chambers of the Night,
Like some old poet's rhymes.

From the cool cisterns of the midnight air
My spirit drank repose;
The fountain of perpetual peace flows there,--
From those deep cisterns flows.

O' holy Night from thee I learn to bear
What man has borne before!
Thou layest thy finger on the lips of Care
And they complain no more.

Peace! Peace! Orestes-like I breathe this prayer!
Descend with broad-winged flight,
The welcome, the thrice-prayed for, the most fair,
The best-beloved Night!


In Loving Memory
Mary Lee Smith-Brown