Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of my Christian friends a very Merry Christmas and a Peaceful New Year. I hope that your holiday is a festive one and that you and your families remain safe and healthy. May your days ahead be blessed with much happiness and fulfillment. Let us reflect wisely and grow spiritual to become better individuals and caring communities.
 

A Storm in the Berkshires

 

                   View in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, Clearing Off after a September Storm -  George Inness (1825-1894)

                                                   A Storm in the Berkshires

                                                      For Amy Clampitt (1920 - 1994)

            Perhaps it was only a dream, a violent autumn storm
            wrawling through darkness and raking the Berkshire hills;
            maple and oak riven from deep ancestral earth,
            and with them your beloved beech tree beneath
            which your ashes have reposed for many years.

            Branches stripped of leaves now broken and lying
            sprawled across the lawn, bird feeder tossed and shattered,
            their seed scattered far and wide in a tempest rush.
            Gone, too, the many birds, their homes and fodder
            carried by the winds to every near compass point.

            The storm has dissipated as I sit silent in your study
            where your breath quieted watching your birds on the wing.
            Drinking coffee I stare out at what nature has wrought,
            a gentle breeze blowing through an open window,
            a cadence your body followed to its early extinction.