Straight From The Hart

  I love to write poetry and I love to read poetry out loud just for the rhythm and flow of the words, and one famous poem which always comes to mind this time of the year is Joyce Kilmer’s “Trees” which is so beautiful in its simplicity. Although Kilmer writes of the summer tree with a “nest of robins in her hair”,and the winter tree “upon whose bosom snow hath lain”, I would venture to say that he never drove through the Missouri Ozarks in the fall to see the blazing red of the autumn foliage, and the neon yellows with the sun shining through, or the orange leaves falling like miniature pumpkins from Charllie Brown’s “Great Pumpkin Tree”, or the muted mauves and dusty roses spread across the “hills and hollers” as you travel the highways and byways of the Ozarks. I have always enjoyed the beautiful colors of fall and have my favorite routes I take to view the trees here in town. The City Cemetery of course is spectacular. The mature trees along Harwood Avemue are magnificen...

And Then The Rains Came For several days we’ve watched with joy the colors of the Fall; The reds, the golds, the bronzes, and we have loved them all; So vivid, they took our breath away, beauty beyond compare; Each oak and maple a worship scene, each fire in the bush a prayer. But then the rains came. The leaves let go as the storms blew in, not able to sustain Their grip on the branch which had held them fast, but that was before the rain. Unlike the showers of spring and summer which cause the leaves to grow; The cold November rains of fall with frosty breath do blow; As seasons change, the rains come. It isn’t just the leaves of trees which dread the cold cold rains; God’s people live and laugh and love, have losses as well as gains; While all the time we know, in time, we’ll have our sorrows, too; That we must prepare to keep holding on when the storms of life blow through. Because the rains will come. But if we’ve built an ark of safety as directed ...