Category: Beauty

July Poems and Pictures

July 6, 2020 · 1 Comment ·

robin on the branch
outside my window
rain-washed air

July 15, 2010

Peonies In July
July 8, 2011
Photo by Karl

Deep calleth unto deep … *
filling my heart with hope
greater than my mind

* from Psalm 42: 7 (KJV)

July 24, 2012

dragonfly rests
for a moment
on the tree branch
long enough for me
to see each wing

July 18, 2013

wildflowers grow
by fields of corn
words of poetry
uplift my soul
keep me strong

Queen Anne’s Lace
along the roads
missing my mother
she somehow
seems near

July 17, 2014

strength for the iris
while waiting to bloom
daylily

July 16, 2015

early hours
of quiet and poetry
gardens overflow
and if some winter
my mind forgets
my heart will know

July 30, 2015

Gerbera Daisy Plants
July 4, 2016
Ellen Grace Olinger

morning music
bird songs more present
than sounds from the highway

July 7, 2017

Flowers
July 29, 2018
Photo by Karl

as I create a post
and prepare to publish
I see the themes
of my life so far

art, beauty, creativity, encouragement, faith, flowers, gratitude, grief, health, hope, love, nature, poetry, seasons. . .

July 23, 2019

Ellen Grace Olinger

early morning

June 3, 2020 ·

plant with new growth
fills with light
grows towards the light

poem

June 2, 2020 ·

sometimes

I like to create
new arrangements
for the art
in my study

this morning
it brings some
peace to sit
in my chair

and everything
the same and
work in progress
as the day before

and after a time – a new poem

some days

May 29, 2020 ·

some days
I read a poem
and seem to
understand

other times
I reread and
then I may
understand

and years later
see something new

This week, I am rereading Eye of the Beholder: Poems, by Luci Shaw (2018, Paraclete Press).

The language arts are an ever-growing source of inspiration. Sometimes it is good to simply “hear” a favorite author’s voice. A book may have been with you during a difficult time, and now you understand in another way. Luci Shaw is a generous writer. I gave a few of her books to one of the four places where I received care in 2018 and 2019. Now my care is at two places. And home, with Karl. The goal is to maintain progress.

We have to be patient during this time of COVID-19. Karl follows the science regarding progress for a vaccine. We are following directions!

Please see Luci Shaw The Official Website, if you would like more information. I look forward to her new book later this year.

Memory, Beauty, Hope

May 10, 2020 ·

When we began this blog in December 2009, and the first years here, I reflected often on the caregiving years with my mother. I am so grateful for those years.

One of the many things I learned was to look for beauty. Those lessons still apply today. We may have been in a hospital room – and look at the autumn beauty. We were near where my mother taught for years. She knew.

Two poems from my archives, in loving memory and gratitude:

another year
has passed since
my mother’s passing
I sit and quietly read
a book she would like too

country cemetery
trumpet vines
growing taller
than the gravestones

“country cemetery” was published in Time Of Singing, 2012.