Happy Holidays to All !

 

SNOW SCENE

 

The first snowfall of winter

It causes quite the stir

It makes us know for certain

That Ole Man Winter's here

It purifies the landscape

In a quilt of mostly white

The moon lights the boughs and branches

On a cold and crystally night 

The tracks of winter travelers,

Both critters and mankind,

Slightly mar the blanket

Until the wind blurs them in time

The stillness is most impressive 

Quietness rules the air

Only the wind in the pine trees

Gently disturbs the silence here

It is the first snowfall of winter

Now, as I add a log to the fire

I sip from  my steaming cup and think,

What more could a man desire?

KL Dennie 2024

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL

                          DISCOURAGEMENT CANNOT GROW IN  A THANKFUL HEART. 

AUTUMN WALK

 
                                                              

                                                                   

I took a walk this early morn

In the cold Autumn mist

I turned my collar to the damp

And pulled my sleeves tight to my wrist

The sun was casting golden rays

Piercing the hazy gray air

Like stage lights searching the cast

As the curtain parts with flair

The swish swish swish of fallen leaves

As  they danced around my feet

Brought a smile as I strolled along 

That sound is a melody sweet

Then the sun broke triumphantly

Through the dullness of the mist

And the breeze persuaded the painted leaves

Into a kaleidoscopic twist 

Then I turned home reluctantly

Beneath a canopy of blue

Convinced (as if I needed to be)

 Fall walks are a joyful thing to do

K.L. Dennie 2024

First Things First

 

Freddie Is Free

On the courthouse bench sat Crazy Fred

Answering the voices inside his head

"He's a nutcase" so many said

They just simply did not know

Fred didn't live in this space and time

He only heard and saw 1969

He heard the bullet snaps and the mortar lines

In the jungles of long, long ago

Once he'd been a bright and handsome lad

Joined the Army as his grandpa had

Made his father proud and his mother sad

When it was Charlie Company's time to go

The sun was as hot as hot can be

Above the dark green canopy

When the ground exploded, then all he could see

Was what was left of Mickey and Joe 

With the best Docs the Army could find

They had fixed his body a patch at a time

The worst scars he'd shown were in his mind

The Docs weren't able to stitch his soul

How quickly we judge what we don't understand 

There was a tortured boy trapped inside this man

When the call had come to make a stand 

Fred had never considered saying no

Today there's seven rifle shots times three

And the bugle blows so solemnly

Beside a flag-draped coffin for all to see

That Sergeant Freddie can at last go home

K L Dennie 2024

Beauty: John Muir

 " No synonym for God is so perfect as Beauty. Whether as seen in the carving lines of the mountains with glaciers, or gathering matter into stars, or planning the movements of water, or gardening - still all is Beauty!"   John Muir 

Solitude

 

WIND

It can be as soft as cotton

As it brushes across the skin

It makes music in the cedars

And causes mighty oaks to bend

It whips the leaves and grasses

Into a spirit dance

It causes the mustang's mane to fly

In every jump and prance

It caresses the blue waters

From ripples to mighty waves

It is the wind that chooses what it takes

And it chooses what it saves

It is at once terrible

Howling at the eaves

Roaring thru town and glen

Devastating limbs and leaves

And then it tempers its anger

And quiet as a mouse

It gently moves the curtains

In the windows of the house

"It blows where it listeth" 

It goes and comes again

Is there a thing as wonderful

As the mystery in the wind?

K.L. Dennie Jan 2024