Lake Beds
can flood the fields
and cause some plants to drown
Nothing to do but watch it happen
and wait
and wait
The warmth of the sun
and breezes blowing
soak up the lakes in time
But the plants are dead
and the bare spot beckons
rich soil, waiting
At just the right moment
no longer muck or mud
I’m back with the planter
and loaded with seeds
snuggling a fresh batch in
Moisture, warmth, and mothering soil
are electric to the seeds
They swell and pop a shoot right out
and grow like there’s no tomorrow
Hurry! Grow like crazy!
The race has just begun
to beat some frost
that will surely come
to keep the harvest small
Lake beds yield
but not the same
the weight of water squeezes
Compacts the soil
limits moisture movement
limits space between soil particles
The farmer, the machinery,
the many things that come together
that cause one seed to multiply
returning hundreds ere winter comes
Each step has its mysteries
as to why things happen so
Deeper, ever deeper,
we study and learn
Finding design, designees been there
The map’s in the soil
in the seeds, genetics
in the chemistry, the weather
in you, and me
A joy to learn a part
and happiness to play it well
in our time
For, you see,
He makes all things beautiful
in His time
Selah, Lin
Colored Glasses
put on their glasses
wear them most every waking minute
Some choose dark ones
against the sun
some choose tints
for style, I suppose
I dunno
By far the best
in my book at least
are the ‘rose colored glasses’
that friends use on each other
photo shop, is nothing new!
It’s been used on me
on you
for many years
No blemishes there
no loss of hair, or muss
no shapes that mar
or take away
from love in action
“I see you”
said a chief to a general
way out west one day
The men knew each other’s souls
and respected each other down deep
a father swoops them up
and holds them strong
protected
‘family colored glasses’
are wondrous things
What are we seeing
and how do we see folks?
Ah, a major choice of focus
My wish for you, and you, and you
is for ‘love colored glasses’
touching souls
in beauty
Lin 7/10
Penned for a teacher, who has ‘love colored glasses’
HOH
to the village of Tolono
Walked out west
to stake his claim
plough and ply, plant and harvest
feed his family and others
First he built a lean to
just next to a tiny stream
water
every day, necessity
close at hand
Winter came
the family huddled
somehow they survived
Cold days, frozen soil,
HJ and son would journey
horses and sled
to a local sawmill
hauling back the cut boards
from which the home was built
Still, the stream supplied
Mondays found great grandma
Christina Mueller ne
with buckets in her hands
water from the stream a carryin’
to do the weekly wash
Tuesday was washing day
carrying was too hard
to wash that self same day
A train carload one day
unloaded in Tolono
“Hogsheads’ the containers called
large wooden kegs
some hundreds of gallons holding
HJ bought one, brought it home
buried it by the house
First he filled it
from the stream
and then roof water filled
HJ ran a pipe
from granma’s kitchen sink
down into that big ole barrel
Picture granma’s arm a pumpin’
water into her sink
tears running down her face
so happy
no more carrying water
from the nearby stream
and a pipe went down
deep in the prairie soil
down and down and down
into the hiding water
No more dipping buckets
into the hand dug well
the cows could grow in number
HJ could use that energy
to feed more cows, more sows
the farm could grow in output
Jump forward a hundred years
cities now abound
deep wells into aquifers
big pipes delivering water
connecting cities even
That pure, sparkling water
now pipes past our farm home
a little pipe, ties us in,
right in to the kitchen
Picture a woman
at the sink
holding a clear glassful
tears running down her face
as she rejoices
no more scrubbing stains
no more ruined clothes
whites are white, not iron yellowed
another happy woman!
We human beings
mostly water we
stay close to water daily
yet appreciate it only little
until it’s gone
or ruined somehow
poisoned, against our drinking
Two steps back
start thinking
about wise using
tuning in
to save ourselves
a make a way for others
to treat our world more kindly
to leave it ever better
Maybe a hundred years from now
some lady will be standing
at her kitchen sink
tears streaming
in thankfulness, thinking
about how precious, is the water
we preserved, kept pure
for her, and all her family
Selah, Lin 6/10
Loving Kindness
in one word or two
a whole string of meanings
and all movers and shakers
I saw it just yesterday
when my wife, the daughter
jumped up to get her dad a spoon
She could think his thoughts
and sense his problem
and she moved immediately in lovingkindness
I saw it just yesterday
when my wife, the mom
whipped up an awesome cake
She could think his thoughts, our son
and connected with him and his family
she moved immediately in lovingkindness
I see it so many days
when my wife, the person
is moving as His hands
within the impulses of lovingkindness
in serving others
sensing their needs
providing
filling their cups
with lovingkindness
Hugs, kisses, pats
listening, listening, listening
and knowing
wisely silent, wisely sharing
She’s a little bit of heaven
to those of us who know her
Bless her, Father God,
as she goes upon her way
your way
coloring the earth so beautifully
with lovingkindness
Lin 03/10
Constance June Perry Warfel (kay)
The Pounding
pounding earth into hardened brick
pounding people caught out in it
Thunder booming
lightning crashing
big drops splashing, blinding
wind whistling a frantic tune
Nature on the run!
The trees twist and turn
and thrash about
bits of leaves falling down
branches cracking with the strain
grass laying over, giving in
brushed one way for a day
The farmer watches powerless
save for the quiet prayer
he feels for his plants
crops no place to hide, no respite theirs
just stand and take it, best they can
And then it’s over
dripping from the roof and trees
water gurgling in the gutters
ditches flowing lots of water
Away it goes, streams to rivers
rivers ever bigger
and then the gulf, or mighty oceans
to lie and wait the sun transference
into the air, into the clouds
to find its way back here
with ample rainfall
to water us, and water plants
water through the seasons
the tiny part
we can drink
so fine
so beautiful
so pure
Thank you Lord
for many blessings
Summer rain among them!
Lin, Thunderstorm, 6-10
water comes from:
97.5 % oceans
2.5% fresh, 70% of that is frozen (poles, glaciers, permafrost)
All living things have about 0.75% to live on, mostly underground
Agricultural use:
Britain-3%
United States-41%
China-70%
India-90%
World as a whole – 70%
source: The Economist, May 22, 2010
The Great Spring Itch
and all through school they went
Feelings of ‘wanting out!”
start itching
with the warmth of sun
and longer days
Yawning in the morning sun
shaking off the frost
I walk across the frozen skin
soon to be blackened mud
Cold iron lies in waiting
engines wintered long
oil like syrup
drags them back
resisting, resisting, then
Roar! they spring to life!
Oh, it feels so good!
To stir the pot of spring
plans coming off the papers
into piles of seeds
and machines pawing to work
The soil that looked so lifeless
sprouts hair fine tiny plants
they leap and grow
and color the land
green, is coming again
the soil where it itches?
Maybe they reach inside me
whispering messages “Wake up!”
At any rate
I’m up
mind racing with a thousand things
then calming with the earth
Patience, says the soil
Flow with me
treat me gentle
I’ll reward your efforts!
“Oh beautiful
for spacious skies
for amber waves of
for purple mountain majesties
above the fruited plain
America, America
God shed His grace on thee
and crown thy good
with brotherhood,
from sea to shining sea.”*
Lin 03/10
*America the Beautiful text: Katherine Lee Bates, music: Samuel A. Ward A