By Brandon

“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”

God’s majestic glory and infinite creativity  is plainly seen in his creation. This bird and fish exists because God intricately designed them. He gave one the ability to swim and the other the ability to soar. Formed one with feathers and the other with scales, one with lungs and the other with gills.  Both predators were uniquely designed for the habitats that God created for them to thrive in. One with eyes that pierce through the tannin stained waters of lakes and river systems to detect the slightest movements of a baitfish. The other with eyes that pierce through the surface of the water to carefully calculate the angle and speed of attack from above. Both absolutely marvelous in their own right.

Even if no human being would have ever laid eyes on them or camera lens captured them, they would have existed for the glory of God.  The fact that this fallen creation that has been thoroughly marred by sin still contains such wondrous beauty is a vivid reminder of God’s Grace. 

“This is my Father's world

And to my listening ears

All nature sings and round me rings”

Photo Credit- John Clare Stokes

Lover of gold

 She said

I am fond of gold

And I am told

She said

You know the one

To secure me some

She said

My love he said

If to gold I led

Quickly you would 

Forget

The tinge of red.

I have been a walker

 "It requires a direct dispensation from Heaven to become a walker." Henry David Thoreau

Scalded

 Scalded

As a little boy I wandered into the kitchen, saw the coffee pot cord, pulled it, spilling boiling water onto my left shoulder, arm and chest. I spent long weeks bandaged, Korean war way of dealing with burns, making the scars worse. The doctor said I would never use my left arm. Here I am with the bandaged arm. I did not listen to Dr Head. I went on to make use of the left hand. The scars had a deep way of shaping who I became. Scars are what defined me, but never hindered or used as an excuse.

Wonder Pony

 Wonder Pony

I have had a life long love for Wonder Pony, who came early into my life and yet remains. He gave my sister the biggest thrill she was to ever have, though she didn't realize it at the time. He rode my grandson joyfully for a time too, his steeled springs just as strong as ever, sending him to the sunset never setting prairie , just as he did me.

Can you come out?

 The clouds asked the trees

Can the moon come out to play

The trees replied to the clouds

Yes, but only for a spell

For his bedtime comes quickly

Father and son

 Back when Robinson Branch was low

A father and son hiked the Florida trail

Pondering if they could cross where the 

oak tree fell

The son was the first to bravely balance the beam

The father followed shaky and on to the Shoals

together high fiving.

Tucker

The sounding

Johnclarestokes 

In the early morning in the deepest dreaming

They come sounding

Scrape of walker upon the concrete 

Spin of cycle gears in the street

Shuffles from a little boys feet

Sounds of son after adventures far

And I wake and peer into the dawn

Perchance the sounds were returning home

And upon the threshold 

It wasn’t Roger

It wasn’t daddy

It wasn’t Landon

It wasn’t Nathaniel

It wasn’t mother

But Tucker.

Today three years ago I found Tucker out front gone, no visible signs of injury. A mystery. 

About face

 About face

Johnclarestokes 

In the reoccurring dream

the little one is always running

running running

facing always away away

the old man is calling calling

but the little one

into the distance is receding 

there seems no turning

there seems no catching

this one forever 

Away racing

racing

away

Venture there

 Gathering in the Gloam

Venture if you dare

to a place above Little Shoals

Two foot bridges and you are there

All eyes watching from the palmettos.

Promises unkept

 Grain of water

I’ve learned when people say they want something

Not to act too quickly

For more times than not

They are patronizing or just expressing

Sentiment

With no intention of following through

I was more than gullibly willing to order

The couch size canvas of the Suwannee

It arrived and to me it looked awesome

I tried to contact the one who said they

Wanted one

After months of no reply 

Yesterday we hung the canvas over the piano

Don’t make me promises please

I only have so much space to hang my

Suwannee’s.

Fixx

 The Day the Runner Died

john clare

Do you recall where you were

The day upon Highway Fifteen

Out of Hardwick, Vermont

James Fuller Fixx

Collapsed into a heap on that Sunday morning of 

July 20, 1984?

Jim Vedova did, for he was

Driving by on vacation

And recalls upon reading

The papers of

Seeing the ambulance and 

The attendants while journeying

 back to Lake City

Never knowing that alone 

Beside Highway 15

The complete runner

had died.

And as for me 

The day before

At twenty nine

In my prime

I had run three

At a 5:45 pace

Never thinking that at

52, I too the widow maker

Would face,

Not upon Highway 15,

But highway 245 with

Not even a hill

To die upon in sight.