Skip to main content

JOY OF READING

 JOY OF READING

Written by Joan Rowden Hart


I sit in my office and look at my treasure

Stacked row upon row, the source of my pleasure

There is wealth beyond measure everywhere that I look

So many shelves, filled with book after book.


So many words that tell so many stories

So many volumes just full of God’s glory

So many reminders of our history and then

So many narratives of women and men


Who have experienced life with all of its trials,

And still write the words that will cause me to smile,

Who have struggled with failure and rose up again

And made me forget my own troubles and pain.


So many thoughts, written with deep meditation

Shared with those who will read with great contemplation

Thoughts that I by myself could never create

Are given to me in abundance so great


Free for the taking, but not enough time

To just sit and enjoy other’s thoughts so sublime.

There’s so much to learn hidden deep in those tomes

Of other men’s travels while we stay in our homes


There is poetry and mystery and beauty so rare

There are cookbooks and joke books, and this is my prayer

That I live long enough to enjoy them all

As I look at the bookshelves adorning my wall


So let me die happy with a book in my hand

As I cross that wide river to heaven’s fair land

As I breathe my last breath, let me take one more look

And say Please wait Lord while I read one more book.


©Joan Rowden Hart 2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

COMMUNION ON THE MOON

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow. (Melody Beattie) Americans need a day dedicated to gratitude. I have noticed that in the lineup of most of our holidays that Thanksgiving is perhaps the one least given over to secularism - the one we still observe in a traditional fashion. We need it to keep our focus clear and to teach our children what it means to be thankful for family, friendship and faith. We need a time to gather around the table with extended family and enjoy turkey and dressing and gravy, two kinds of potatoes, cranberries, hot rolls, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie and whipped cream. We need it, not for the calories, but to create an awareness that there are those who don’t have those blessings, because in the hectic pace of our everyday lives we tend to forget those in need. Family and food are important, but above all else, Americans need a rededication to our faith. Faith brought the pilgrims to the ne...
Post a Comment
Read more

ANNIE, THE CAT'S MEOW

  I first met Annie back in February 2004 after Milan told me to let him know what I wanted for for Valentine’s Day and he promised would get it for me no matter what it was. He has often joked that he should have have put some conditions on that. But he didn’t, and so I headed straight to the Humane Society animal shelter. It had been two long years since we had put our beloved Maine Coon cat to sleep, a big pile of what appeared to be nothing but fur, but had a huge heart hidden inside. We had named him Ollie in honor of Col. Oliver North who was our news hero at the time. I entered the cat compound at the Humane Society. There were only two cats inside, a brown tabby who ran to the other side of the pen away from me, and a little black and white girl who came running over to me and when I picked her up, she snuggled her head under my chin and began to purr. It was love at first sight. She was new there and they had not given her a name so I called her Annie. She was alway...
Post a Comment
Read more

FELINE GHOSTS

FELINE GHOSTS... Feeling ghosts around me today Shadows of cats I have known Feline ghosts, I call them, Cats who have made this their home. Sometimes I feel the gentleness Of soft fur nestled close in my arms And it seems I can hear the soft purring Of remembered kitty cat charms I see them move through the shadows Just a glimpse, then out of my sight Sometimes it’s the white tail tipping That I see in the dark of the night The movements are quiet and fleeting I see them at nighttime and day Just figments of my imagination Grayson, Annie, or Ollie at play. They knew this house was their castle They reigned in each room where they played They slept when they wanted and ate all they could Feline memories stay close, they don’t fade. It’s autumn that I really miss them When hickory nuts start to fall I can see kitty faces so precious In the windows that line up my wall The hickory tree looks in the windows As squirrels ...
Post a Comment
Read more