Natural Joys
Delight
Mist
Nightfall
Rainbow
Rainfall
Squirrel
Sunset
Sundial
Vistas
Wild Heart
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Delight - July 11, 1997
Secret gardens, hidden from view
Delight eye and soul when,
Paused from speeding through life's ways
I come upon you unprepared.
God's hands there planted beauty
To heal heart's care, like Paradise...
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Mist - November 28, 1999
Reluctantly I leave the door,
Move away from sanctuary
Into a world of dim mystery.
Within a chill grey cloud
I stray, step by hesitant step,
Through vaporous veils of mist.
Out of eddying billows appear
Faint visions of familiar streets,
Like ancient villages out of Time.
The clinging shroud covers o'er
The crossroads, wrapped in tatters
Of ghostly winding sheets...
An owl sweeps silently o'erhead,
Her wide wings pushing aside
Drifting shards of moisture...
They reform in her drafty wake,
And clot the air before my eyes
With enigmatic forms.
The greyness hangs in sheets
Within my own yard... the trees,
Each planted by my own hands,
Become strange, mocking spectres,
Reaching bony fingers
To grasp and hold me back...
I reach my front porch,
And in dark, shrouded corners,
Bright, restless eyes peer out.
Their furtive curiousity
Wakes dread anticipation
Of a sudden rush.
I open the door, step through...
Pass into warmth and light...
Close out the misty night.
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Nightfall - March 12, 2000
Patternings of birds swirl by...
The newly crescent Moon
Lies cradled deep within
The indigo breast of the Sky...
Gentle Twilight comes...
Glowing with purified light,
Soothing Day's weary brow...
And quietly... Night falls...
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Rainbow - October 28, 1997
Shimmering color arched against grey sky,
Painted by dancing light on air-borne mist.
Wide flung by a sacred Hand...
The Hand that formed of dust and nothingness
The solid Earth below.
Beauty and promise together blended,
Beauty ethereal, promise divine.
Given to grace the clouds and the rain,
Given to bless the world-weary heart...
Shimmers... fades... brightens...
To vanish in brilliance...
Shines through the dark in my soul.
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Rainfall - August 13, 1997
Watching the rain fall, I smiled,
As the ground shouted in gladness.
As the rain fell harder, I laughed aloud,
And all the plants sang for joy.
Cool airs followed, soothing us all,
And light after dark clouds,
Bringing peace.
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Squirrel - July 24, 1997
Quick, impudent, bright-eyed rascal
Scampers across my path, dashing away
Into dark, sturdy shield of trees beyond...
Gaily advances, flirts back to shelter.
Sweet scoundrel! I'd not harm nor hold thee!
Touch my heart with thy laughter...
Within the sun glades of my spirit
There will always be freedom for thee...
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Sundial - February 11, 1998
The Sun does not move,
Save that we ourselves move.
For we have not the eons to observe
His immense, deliberate motion
As he swings in awesome majesty
Within a vast celestial pendulum.
What we observe as his,
His daily dance across the sky
From brightening dawn to deepening dark,
Is our own spinning, frantic flight,
First to his warmth, and then away
To darkness, thick and cold.
We stand and watch the shadows
As they quickly cross our feet and move away...
Think - "How fast the Sun moves!" - and do not see
That the spearpoint of the shadowy spire
Reveals our own flight as it passes,
As we move toward Eternity.
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Sunset - December 17, 2000
Fire in the sky! The departing Sun
Leaves his fiery mark upon the clouds,
Bidding farewell in flaming abandon
As he moves on to his night abode.
Ranked clouds span the dusky horizon,
To honor the day’s passing majesty
High-flung birds in radiant silhouette
Soar through the gilded crimson sky,
As I stand witness in wondering delight
To the swift glory of Nature’s farewell.
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Vistas - July 25, 1997
Pattern on pattern rising before me,
Hills upon hillsides,
All climbing skyward, fading in mist.......
Green velvet meadows lace-edged in trees,
Jeweled with bright flowers
Set in summer gold of molten sun.......
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Wild Heart - January 25, 2000
A wilding creature walks with silent step
among the stomping herd,
Moving with elusive grace
within their sad and burdened clot.
He hears the wind through falcon's wing
above the quiet forest path,
A subtle stillness o'er the din
that holds their dreary minds in thrall.
He see through eyes of hawk,
he feels the freeing grace of soaring flight,
And breathes the crystal air of heights
beyond the dreary wastes of Man.
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This page updated April 20, 2000.
All poetry copyrighted by Barbara J. Mann. All rights reserved.
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