Dappled Things

Glory be to God for dappled things—
  For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
      For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
  Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
      And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
  Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
     With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
                                    Praise Him.

— “Pied Beauty” by Gerard Manley Hopkins

I love these autumn walks with Remi. Seeing her in her spotted glory against the blanket of peach and yellow leaves reminds me of this poem. I love it for the word-play, for the gratitude it so lovingly paints, and because I am also a lover of the contrasting beauty of “dappled things.”

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Enjoy the dappled things, the things strange, fickle, sour and sweet that tend to come along with holiday gatherings. Extra love to all of us whose table will be missing a loved one this year.

Easy to be grateful for things adazzle. Harder for things dim. May we find the past-change beauty in it all.

Love,
Shannon

Trickery

Happy Halloween!

I have been playing with poetry over at tweetspeakpoetry.com, trying out their Monday morning prompts. Last Monday’s poetry prompt theme had to do with beasts and bears. I’d been reading Shel Silverstein with the girls, and with Halloween around the corner, the following is what I conjured up. (With a deep bow to Shel Silverstein, I also had some fun doodling a few illustrations).

Trickery

“Do your chores!” my dad says
but he’d better beware…
a witch has bewitched me
and now I’m a bear!

To help mom with dinner
is the right thing to do,
but a grouchy gray ghost
turned me into a gnu!

 

My brother would like me
to help stack the blocks,
but a feisty lil’ fairy
has made me a fox!

To finish my homework
would be just divine,
but a spellbinding sprite
turned me into a swine!

 

So this is my story– a tale sad but true.
Now I must say good-bye, and find something to do!