I lose myself in the sound of summer rain,
fling into the free-fall,
slip into a swollen stream,
ride the river-run down to the sea,
rise again into the sky,
lose myself…
~ Rebekah Choat
Category Archives: beauty
Going Back (NaPoWriMo 2019/11)
The road still runs straight
but the surroundings have changed.
The once-dry creekbed
is bubbling over its banks;
the meadow is all abloom.
~ Rebekah Choat
My November Guest
My Sorrow, when she’s here with me,
thinks these dark days of autumn rain
are beautiful as days can be;
she loves the bare, the withered tree;
she walks the sodden pasture lane.
Her pleasure will not let me stay.
She talks and I am fain to list:
She’s glad the birds are gone away,
she’s glad her simple worsted gray
is silver now with clinging mist.
The desolate deserted trees,
the faded earth, the heavy sky,
the beauties she so truly sees,
she thinks I have no eye for these,
and vexes me for reason why.
Not yesterday I learned to know
the love of bare November days
before the coming of the snow,
but it were vain to tell her so,
and they are better for her praise.
~ Robert Frost
So every day
image by Rebekah Choat
So every day
I was surrounded by the beautiful crying forth
of the ideas of God,
one of which was you.
~ Mary Oliver
Sunday Morning
A Sunday morning
slant of light – heaven bending
down to kiss the earth.
~ Rebekah Choat
April Fooling
image by Rebekah Choat
Shining morning turn-
ing to storm-
ing without warning:
pounding raining, wild
wind gusting,
thundering raging,
roaring, screaming, then
relenting,
gradual gentling,
sudden sun gleaming,
breeze sweeping
streaming clouds away.
~ Rebekah Choat
A Birthday
My heart is like a singing bird
whose nest is in a watered shoot;
My heart is like an apple tree
whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit;
My heart is like a rainbow shell
that paddles in a halcyon sea;
My heart is gladder than all these
because my love is come to me.
Raise me a dais of silk and down;
hang it with vair and purple dyes;
Carve it in doves and pomegranates,
and peacocks with a hundred eyes;
Work it in gold and silver grapes;
in leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;
Because the birthday of my life
is come, my love is come to me.
~ Christina Rossetti
The Wind
I saw you toss the kites on high
And blow the birds about the sky;
And all around I heard you pass,
Like ladies’ skirts across the grass —
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
I saw the different things you did,
But always you yourself you hid.
I felt you push, I heard you call,
I could not see yourself at all —
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
O you that are so strong and cold,
O blower, are you young or old?
Are you a beast of field and tree,
Or just a stronger child than me?
O wind, a-blowing all day long,
O wind, that sings so loud a song!
~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Labor Day Weekend
image by Rebekah Choat
They say it’s the end
of the summer, the turn of
the year. The garden
pretends not to hear, stays for
just a little while longer.
~ Rebekah Choat
Traveling at Home
image by Rebekah Choat
Even in a country you know by heart
it’s hard to go the same way twice.
The life of the going changes.
The chances change and make a new way.
Any tree or stone or bird
can be the bud of a new direction. The
natural correction is to make intent
of accident. To get back before dark
is the art of going.
~ Wendell Berry
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