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Category: Poetry
Winter Poetry
23-11-25 Red Canvas Bag ©Molly Lin Dutina
Most of the year you live in
A red canvas bag
Then we bring you home
From the clanging metal storage building
Straighten your limbs
Hang baubles of delight and memory on your
Prelit branches
You grace our home with extra light
Shielding us from the gloom of approaching
Winter short days
The night is less daunting
As you fill our room with a soft glow
Light of the Savior
Topped with His Crown of Glory
Light to save us from despair
November 22 Verse
We were blessed to see this the day before Thanksgiving. I am still rejoicing!
Doe Among Us© Molly Lin Dutina We entered the paved trail with a sure sense of adventure Had never before walked this path Not five feet into the woods Not five feet from the pavement Acutely aware doe watches us Husband looking at his camera settings I had to calmly say, “A deer, dear” Touching his arm to get his full attention. She started when he noticed her She stood and slowly began to walk away It was only then that we saw the fawn Resting calmly a few feet behind her How do they signal each other so silently? Before long a small herd stood Walked up the hillside Vanished into the honeysuckle shrubbery
“And they walked up the hillside” so camouflaged had I not seen them go up I might have missed them totally! Deer are common in our area, but I do not tire of them (unless of course they are eating my garden plants!) I think one reason I love the white tailed deer is that deer are mentioned so often in Scripture.
The Sovereign Lord is my strength;
Habakkuk 3:19 NIV
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to tread on the heights.
Crimson Hand© Molly Lin Dutina
Across the meadow a maple tree reaches out a golden arm it’s hand is crimson, but not the rest some branches are bare that crimson hand beckons me someone else wrote the question “When the leaves fall with such abandon, do they not know winter soon follows?"
Reading “May I have This Dance?” by Joyce Rupp, I came across this quote.
I remember sitting on an old porch in Edensburg, Pennsylvania. It was the sixth of October and the hills were radiant with color. The golds and reds of the trees swayed in the strong breeze and I sat there hurrahing the dying leaves. The thought surprised and rather appalled me: How could I love the colors of death? How could I be so callous? How could I eagerly cheer for the forest leaves as they sailed to their death when I so strongly wanted to hold onto life? I was astounded at how easily the trees let go of their treasures. I was dismayed by the stark contrast of this acceptance of death and my own tight grip on life.
Joyce Rupp – October
My brain gets a little confused over chlorophyll and leaf colors. I heard one scientist over simplify saying all the colors are there all year ’round. We just see the chlorophyll as most prominent. At that my brain is going if the green of chlorophyll is mixing with the yellow then shouldn’t the leaves look blue? Arghh! Scientists confusing simple ol’ me.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/visit/fall-colors/science-of-fall-colors
During the growing season, chlorophyll is continually being produced and broken down and leaves appear green. As night length increases in the autumn, chlorophyll production slows down and then stops and eventually all the chlorophyll is destroyed. The carotenoids and anthocyanin that are present in the leaf are then unmasked and show their colors.
A color palette needs pigments, and there are three types that are involved in autumn color:
- Carotenoids: Produces yellow, orange, and brown colors in such things as corn, carrots, and daffodils, as well as rutabagas, buttercups, and bananas.
- Anthocyanin: Gives color to such familiar things as cranberries, red apples, concord grapes, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and plums. They are water soluble and appear in the watery liquid of leaf cells.
- Chlorophyll: Gives leaves a basic green color. It is necessary for photosynthesis, the chemical reaction that enables plants to use sunlight to manufacture sugars for food.
Certain colors are characteristic of particular species:
- Oaks: red, brown, or russet
- Hickories: golden bronze
- Aspen and yellow-poplar: golden yellow
- Dogwood: purplish red
- Beech: light tan
- Sourwood and black tupelo: crimson
- The color of maples leaves differ species by species:
- Red maple: brilliant scarlet
- Sugar maple: orange-red
- Black maple: glowing yellow
- Striped maple: almost colorless
That makes more sense to me, “As chlorophyll production slows down and then stops – the carotenoids and anthocyanin that are present in the leaf are then UNMASKED and show their colors.”
So in my poem I am uncertain if a red maple seen from this distance is holding the ‘hand’ of a sugar maple? Regardless the leaves are not entirely fallen, but most have. I am truly aware of winter when the leaves of the invasive honeysuckle shrubs fall. Then we are in for the worst winter can send our way. The last couple winters have been very mild. Wonder what climate change will send our way this winter?
If the folklore abut the woolly bear caterpillars is to be believed this will be a harsh winter. Time will tell!
Bearing Fruit
Jesus had much to say about growing plants. These lessons still apply to us today, though most of us no longer live in an agrarian culture. Read what was written in the book of John.
“I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Gardener. 2 He lops off every branch that doesn’t produce. And he prunes those branches that bear fruit for even larger crops. 3 He has already tended you by pruning you back for greater strength and usefulness by means of the commands I gave you. 4 Take care to live in me, and let me live in you. For a branch can’t produce fruit when severed from the vine. Nor can you be fruitful apart from me.
5 “Yes, I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever lives in me and I in him shall produce a large crop of fruit. For apart from me you can’t do a thing. 6 If anyone separates from me, he is thrown away like a useless branch, withers, and is gathered into a pile with all the others and burned. 7 But if you stay in me and obey my commands, you may ask any request you like, and it will be granted! 8 My true disciples produce bountiful harvests. This brings great glory to my Father.
9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Live within my love. 10 When you obey me you are living in my love, just as I obey my Father and live in his love. 11 I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your cup of joy will overflow!
John 15:1-11 TLB
Vine and branches also applies to shrubs and branches. Once while driving the Natchez Trace we came to rest area/ tourist information center that had these shrubs growing along the sidewalk. I was enchanted, especially since purple is my favorite color! (The Natchez Trace Parkway is a 444-mile recreational road and scenic drive through three states. It roughly follows the “Old Natchez Trace,” a historic travel corridor used by American Indians, “Kaintucks,” European settlers, slave traders, soldiers, and future presidents. Today, people can enjoy a scenic drive as well as hiking, biking, horseback riding, and camping along the Parkway.)
More recently, while on retreat at the Convent of the Transfiguration Spirituality Center I found the shrubs once again. (Photograph above)
I cut one branch. The shrubs were loaded with berries. I knew in a just a few weeks the frost would make everything less lovely. One branch would not destroy the future of the shrub.
Holding the lovely branch, I pondered the fact that Jesus is the Vine and I am just a branch. The shrubs I encountered were producing a bountiful harvest of berries. I, too, want to stay close to my Savior and produce a crop to His glory. These berries are attached with tiny, rather fragile stems.
Then a poem emerged:
So many lovely purple spheres bespangled tendrils almost to the ground delight to my eyes firm to the touch but barely affixed you roll down the spine of my book making me giggle Living water flow in me American beauty bush Fruit of dark purple Not in line with liturgical colors yet gift to me. ©Molly Lin Dutina
Eventually I took the branch into the library of the Center and placed it on paper so it would not mar the furniture. The retreat was just for a day or two.
Before I departed I disposed of the cut branch, a clear reminder to cling to Christ and stay connected.
The memory of that berry rolling down the spine of my book still makes me giggle. Isn’t it amazing how tiny things can bring us joy if we are willing to slow down and look for them? May your day bring you splendid surprises.
Delight Must Be Permitted
We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of the world.
Jack Gilbert , a Brief for the Defense
When I read the above I wanted to know more about where it came from. I found it online at https://poetrysociety.org/poems/a-brief-for-the-defense
Sorrow everywhere. Slaughter everywhere. If babies are not starving someplace, they are starving somewhere else. With flies in their nostrils. But we enjoy our lives because that's what God wants. Otherwise the mornings before summer dawn would not be made so fine. The Bengal tiger would not be fashioned so miraculously well. The poor women at the fountain are laughing together between the suffering they have known and the awfulness in their future, smiling and laughing while somebody in the village is very sick. There is laughter every day in the terrible streets of Calcutta, and the women laugh in the cages of Bombay. If we deny our happiness, resist our satisfaction, we lessen the importance of their deprivation. We must risk delight. We can do without pleasure, but not delight. Not enjoyment. We must have the stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of this world. To make injustice the only measure of our attention is to praise the Devil. If the locomotive of the Lord runs us down, we should give thanks that the end had magnitude. We must admit there will be music despite everything. We stand at the prow again of a small ship anchored late at night in the tiny port looking over to the sleeping island: the waterfront is three shuttered cafés and one naked light burning. To hear the faint sound of oars in the silence as a rowboat comes slowly out and then goes back is truly worth all the years of sorrow that are to come. From Collected Poems by Jack Gilbert. Copyright © 2012 by Jack Gilbert.
“Ruthless furnace of the world” certainly describes the daily worldwide news. May you risk delight today and give the LORD all the glory.
I have now turned 73 years old, or as one friend quipped, “37, until I can no longer reverse the numbers!” Anyway you look at it, aging has been galloping down the road towards me. The trouble with seeing all those specialists and the dentist a week or two before a birthday is they all bring it to your attention! “Oh, I see you are about to have another birthday!” My Dentist says I need all these filings because of “TMB”, Too-many-birthdays, i.e., my gums have receded and there is now new enamel to decay!
Ha! But we must risk delight! We must continue to seek treasures in plain sight! If our eyes fail then we must seek humor in every place that we go. If we cannot go then we must remember humor from past experiences. Hold to that “stubbornness to accept our gladness in the ruthless furnace of the world” and the ruthless march of decay our body experiences.
So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:16 NRSV
You had Me At The Title “God’s Worship”
I have always loved cello music. Try this one!
Worship in God’s service. I love it!
I have been reading You are Here by David Steindl-Rast. In Chapter 6 called The It he quotes Martin Buber, St. Augustine and Robert Frost to name a few.
What I ultimately encounter in any You, I can also encounter in any tree: Mystery. This happens, as Buber says, “through decision and grace.” Both are necessary. I must decide to open my heart wide for this experience and receive it as a gift. “All is grace,” said St. Augustine, all is Life’s gift. And Life is the story of our adventurous encounters with that “Secret,” of which, so far, we only know from Robert Frost that is “sits in the middle and knows, while “we dance in a ring and suppose.” Draw out the line of relationship into infinity and it will lead to that “Secret” – the Mystery, which we encounter in and through all that exists.
-Brother David Steindl-Rast
He ends the chapter with this comment. “What we need to relearn is to ‘kneel and admire’ in reverence and amazement.”
My body SO protests kneeling in the sense of next to my bed for prayer or at the altar for communion, but the Prayer of Manasseh in the Apocrypha helps me with the line in verse eleven: “And now I bend the knee of my heart, imploring you for your kindness.” The Prayer of Manasseh is a part of the Apocrypha, accepted by some as biblical though not necessarily accepted by all persons as biblical. I personally love this prayer.
So I bend the knee of my heart in admiration, reverence and amazement towards the creation of the Father. This is one of the chapters I was reading while sitting on the porch recently when observations and poems seemed to pour forth out of me.
Imagine if we would approach each person as mystery. We are so prone to make judgements and stereotype people this could bring a radical change in our every encounter! Instead of being exhausted by people the introvert might see meeting as an adventure? Instead of thriving off others, the extrovert might see meeting another as an unknown treasure. Just thinking on the page here.
I hope this blog helps move you towards the decision and grace to move towards life with your eyes wide open and your heart seeking Mystery. May you be blessed with abundant life.
Poetry
Waiting for Autumn ©Molly Lin Dutina
Neighbors yard is filled from First tree to drop her gown likely Yellow Poplar We have a few buttons And ribbons in our lot from other Ladies preparing to drop their gowns Cicadas still sing afternoon melody Sun shines brightly Some maple branches turning getting ready to disrobe Mostly green on our horizon Autumn waits at the corner
So humor from proof reading blog. Must have thought I had deaf cicadas in our yard because I wrote “Cicadas still sign afternoon melody.” Oh Molly, bad humor.
One cicada was so loud last evening, for a moment Bob thought it might have gotten into the house. Saw a huge one on the sidewalk when I walked Lucky this morning. Not dead, but certainly slowing down. Was this who we heard last evening?
Bachelor Buttons©Molly Lin Dutina
Going inward with the deep blue of the bachelor buttons I sink down. I take the encompassing blue with me. Down. I drop my shoulders Down I breathe the blue petals. Knowing the blue from the petals will fade. Down. For now they wrap me in stillness. Down. Wash me in the blue brightness I pray. Down. Not Mrs. Stewart’s bluing agent. Down. But the true blue of fresh flower. Down. Peculiar petals, Down. Not like tea rose. Down. To where I am nestled inside the flower. Down. Beyond the pollen gathering bees. Down. Sitting still in the Blues And restored.
As you can tell I have been riding a wave of poetry. The book Every Day is a Poem by Jacqueline Suskin has helped to challenge and inspire me. Uncertain how long this wave will last. Hope you are enjoying it!
I was frustrated as I have 4 photos of the flowers that I wanted to intersperse with the verses. Word Press was having none of that. I suppose if I spent enough time changing blocks and formatting I might get it. Hopefully, you grasped the idea, even without all the photos!
iPhone into the Sky
I am not by any means a climatologist but I was amazed by the heavens this recent afternoon.
Afternoon Grandeur ©Molly Lin Dutina I shot the iPhone Into the sky Not truly able to focus Hoping to capture Afternoon grandeur And there it is! Great white fluffy clouds In brilliant blue sky. Glory! Wonder of wonders It seems the clouds form jigsaw puzzle pieces One edge of cumulus takes the shape Of other cumulus edge They drift closer and closer Then join as if They were always one Amazed I cannot hear them click into place! Bright blue sky Great big puffy clouds Were you torn in two Or are your edges trying to Match the other one? Ah! Yes, I see you are matching each other’s edges How did I never sit still before To watch this? Then as a larger cloud you move towards another and shape your edges to link - that is absolutely amazing! How did I never observe this before? Sitting still in late summer Multitudes of blessings appear Molly keep looking For treasures in plain sight!
“Look, he is coming with the clouds,”
Revelation 1:7 NIV
and “every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him”;
and all peoples on earth “will mourn because of him.”
So shall it be! Amen.
While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”
Matthew 17:5 NIV
The word is used as a symbol of the Divine presence, as indicating the splendour of that glory which it conceals.
https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/cloud/
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 