
Category Archives: favorite poems
A Candle
“A Candle”*
A candle is but a simple thing,
It starts with just a bit of string,
Yet dipped and dipped with a patient hand,
It gathers wax upon its strand,
Until it’s complete in colors and white
At last it gives a lovely light.
Life is so like that bit of string,
Each deed we do is a simple thing,
Yet day by day if on life’s strand,
We work with patient heart and hand
It gathers joy and makes dark times bright,
Giving at last a loving light.
Kelly Mizell
*Kelly published this on LinkedIn this morning. I was blown away and asked her for her permission to repost it here. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Do Not Quit
“When things go wrong as they sometimes will;
When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and the debts are high
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Rest if you must, but do not quit.”
Filed under Encouragement, favorite poems, Favorite Quotes
“Listen to the Rhythm of the Falling Rain…”
We awoke to an easy, quiet rain this morning, just as our weather forecasters said we would. They are saying we’ll have rain off and on through Friday. It’s a very good thing I pushed myself to do leaf blowing and mulching yesterday. I spent 4 hours, filling TWO 39-gallon bags with mulch. So many more leaves have fallen since I cleaned up that it’s hard to tell where I worked!
I’ll wait until the leaves dry again and try to do at least one more good session of mulching. Meanwhile, if the weather will cooperate, I’ll concentrate on cleaning out the flower planters and filling them up to the brim with mulch for the winter. Happily, I have more and more perennials each year. The mulch helps them get through the winter here and happy to bloom again in the spring.
Later today I will try to harvest some lettuce. I’ll plan to show you pictures.
Life is full of beauty. Notice it.
Notice the bumble bee, the small child,
and the smiling faces.
Smell the rain, and feel the wind.
Live your life to the fullest potential,
and fight for your dreams.
– Ashley Smith
Filed under Arkansas, favorite poems, Greenwood, Mother Nature
Watercolors and Poetry
“On a gentle summer day,
a tiny bird takes its first flight,
Doing cartwheels in the wind,
it sails above day turns to night.
He rests on a branch for an hour,
Then reaches for the sky with power.
He knows not what he’ looking for,
He just opens his wings and soars!
But soon enthusiasm turns to doubt,
As it seems forever he’s been flying about.
His eagerness just stoops and stoops,
And he wonders, “I was right to have flown the coop?”
But strength soon overcomes him once more,
For look what lies ahead, behold and before!
A place so lush and green and nice,
His brand-new home his paradise.”
Copyright – Kate
Filed under favorite poems, Watercolors I Love
“Once I Saw a Little Bird”
“Once I saw a little bird
Come hop, hop, hop;
So I cried, “Little bird,
Will you stop, stop, stop?”
I was going to the window
To say, “How do you do?”
But he shook his little tail,
And far away he flew.”
(I don’t know the author of this little poem, but it has been fun for kids in schools and groups of all kinds for years and years, doing movements to go along with the poem)
Filed under favorite poems, Watercolors I Love
“Zinnias at the Fence”
After reading my post yesterday about zinnias, my cousin (and beautiful friend) Murray Dennis sent me a poem she wrote, saying, “Just sending this as something sort of silly, some neighbors down the street also have zinnias and I wrote this for them . . . It goes along with a picture I took of their fence.”
I loved the poem, and asked her if I could share it. I found the best picture I could to go with it. –
_____________________
“Zinnias at the Fence” By Murray Dennis
“Petaled Riots of happy
color
Orange. . .Purple . . Yellow . . .Red
Growing . . .
flowing in abundance
from a dappled flower
bed
Sneaking . . . Peeking . . .
Through picket fences
Touching all the tender
senses
What a treat
For eager eyes.
A visual shout!
A quiet prize!”
Filed under Favorite People, favorite poems
Eating Cake
“Each morning on my window sill
A little robin sits.
He stays around for a while,
Then away he flits.”
“Is it me he comes to see,
(Perhaps he likes my company ?)
Or is it the piece of cake I leave,
That he pecks at gleefully.”
“He makes me smile, it cheers me so
To watch him eat his fill.
To see him happily eating cake,
Dining, on my window sill.”
Copyright © Gary Smith | Year Posted 2017
Filed under favorite poems, Watercolors I Love
Small Bird Take Flight
“Small bird take flight.
Open your wings, leave shelter behind.
Fear will ground you, riddle you weak.
Feel the winds, the rushing power in the breeze.
Allow the current to embrace you, ruffle your feathers as you chase the sun.
Free yourself from doubt.
Freedom is fluid.
Should I fall, how dreadful.
Should I be incapable of flight, my soul would rupture.
But should I soar, to touch the milky skyline, Oh how inspiring.
Even the smallest bird may take flight.”
___________________
copyright Whitney Hart Posted 2015
Filed under favorite poems, Watercolors I Love
“Hope is the Thing with Feathers”
“Hope is the thing with feathers”
by Emily Dickinson
___________________
‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul –
And sings the tune without the words –
And never stops – at all –
And sweetest – in the Gale – is heard –
And sore must be the storm –
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm –
I’ve heard it in the chillest land –
And on the strangest Sea –
Yet – never – in Extremity,
It asked a crumb – of me.
Filed under favorite poems, Watercolors I Love