The blooming cherry trees are free for all to look upon;
The dogwood buds for all of us, and not some favorite one;
The wide outdoors is no man’s own; the stranger on the street
Can cast his eyes on many a rose and claim its fragrance sweet.
Category: beauty of nature
BEAUTIFUL SPRING POEMS: “Magnolias” by Irish poet Francis Duggan
A thing of such great beauty a lovely thing to see
The purple flowers that in Spring bloom on the magnolia tree
POEMS: “Where the sidewalk ends” (take some time to be in nature) & inspirational video (from an older post)
Yes we’ll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
and we’ll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
for the children, they mark, and the children, they know,
POEMS: “The Lilacs” by Edgar Albert Guest (reminders of my mother, from an older post)
I ALWAYS think of mother, when
The lilac tree’s in bloom,
It seems her soul comes back again
Upon its sweet perfume.
NATURE POEMS: “This world”
“This world” I would like to write a poem about the world that has in it nothing fancy. But it seems impossible. Whatever the subject, the morning sun glimmers it. The tulip feels the heat and flaps its petals open and becomes a star. The ants bore into the peony bud and there is…
ZEN POEMS: “Bird Bath”
Bird Bath Only this matters: this ecstatic baptism this standing on stick- thin legs where the singing creek pools at the lip of the waterfall only this ruby-feathered chest diving to meet its reflection this beak piercing again and again that quivering surface, these wings half- unfolding, a ruffle of joy guiding rivers of…
MYSTICAL POEMS: “The Morning Watch” by Henry Vaughan
“The Morning Watch” O joys! Infinite sweetness! with what flowers And shoots of glory, my soul breaks and buds! All the long hours Of night and rest, Through the still shrouds Of sleep, and clouds, This dew fell on my breast; O how it bloods, And spirits all my earth! hark! in what rings,…
POEMS: “An Easter Prayer” by Helen Steiner Rice (from an older post)
God, give us eyes to see
the beauty of the Spring,
And to behold Your majesty
in every living thing –
SHORT ZEN POEMS: “Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn”
Ten thousand flowers in spring, the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer, snow in winter.
“The Spirit of Poetry” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow -Happy National Poetry Month in April!
“The Spirit of Poetry” There is a quiet spirit in these woods, That dwells where’er the gentle south-wind blows; Where, underneath the white-thorn, in the glade, The wild flowers bloom, or, kissing the soft air, The leaves above their sunny palms outspread. With what a tender and impassioned voice It fills the nice and delicate…
POEMS: “A brave and startling truth” by Maya Angelou
“A brave and startling truth” We, this people, on a small and lonely planet Traveling through casual space Past aloof stars, across the way of indifferent suns To a destination where all signs tell us It is possible and imperative that we learn A brave and startling truth And when we come to it…
SHORT POEMS: “For the Children (from In the Unknown)” about poetry…
“For the Children (from In the Unknown)” Pavement side, a mother and child and a poet’s footsteps exactly coincide: she’s saying to him ‘birds live in trees, and squirrels…’ as we pass, and I can’t resist ‘…and poets’, I add, as her sentence hangs still deep in my one-handed text to you about how…
