Treasures

                       

                        

              

                     Treasures

              With a jeweled flash, a buzz

              And lingering drink

          The hummingbird thanks me.

                                                                            My heart lifts with joy

                                                                                        and wonder

                                                                                 At this beautiful creature.

                                                                         And there, just like that,                                                                                                                   God says, "hello"!

                                                                                    ~For my beautiful mother                                                                                                       who I love so much.

Impressions

IMPRESSIONS

Time flies and the years go by,
Each season seems to pass a little faster.

Summers, especially go by now
In a rapid blur of sameness,
Marked mostly by photographs
From our annual vacation.

The other days shuffle by in the usual tedious nine-to-five.
But sometimes on one of these regular days
The light falls just so and I’m carried away,
To another time when we were young
And the summers went on forever.

June to September was an endless stretch
Of lying on blankets in warm, soft grass,
Staring up at the clouds as they floated past
And dreaming about tomorrow.

We ran barefoot to the neighbor’s and back,
Like the horses we heard galloping past
In the pasture across the way.

We breathed the sweet scent of the hay and the trees,
And our mother’s cooking drifted out with the breeze
To draw us inside, for just a few moments,
while the summer went on forever.

                                                                                                                                                   © 2016 D. T. de Jong

Saulie

You loved warm lemon bars cooling on the counter,

And your perch of the week.

You lived for 3 o’clock feeding and a lap at t.v. time.

You had a hard life before you leveled

 your gaze on me at the shelter

And worked your way into our hearts.

We only had you for a brief time,

But it seems it was long enough

for us to grow to love your funny ways,

To heal your wounded heart,

And to give you what you wanted the most but could never find...

                                 Your home.

                                    We will miss you.  _💚💚💚

A Poem For Spring: Renewal

Swimming 

In college swim class we shared the pool

with a class of elderly women.

I would look at the wrinkled faces and sagging skin

 and imagine each bobbing lady  as she once was: 

Young and vibrant, fresh and lovely.

My friend would laugh at my imaginings.

But now at middle age,

with my own son off to college,

I see that the young person you were

disappears long before the wrinkles set in,

becoming a peculiar stranger.   

   And you begin to realize

a far more valuable and lasting beauty

as you continue,

 treading in the wake.

© 2016 Deborah Therese de Jong

              





Goodbye to Summer 

Through my open window on this bright September morning
the sun warms my face, but a slight chill is in the air.

I inhale the familiar blend of grass, decay and smoky autumn.

On the distant hills
I see the miniature paragliders
 floating down
 like colorful little leaves

as I breathe deeply and, once again,
I say goodbye to summer.                    © 2016 Deborah Therese de Jong



Hope

If you think hope is green 

And love is blue,

But you find this life confuses you,

You should know there’s a God whose love is true,

 He is light, and in him there is no darkness.

We all must live with our troubles and fears,

Good times come then they disappear,

But there is a God who is always near,

He is love and in Him there is no darkness.

So don’t expect worldly theories to suffice,

Turn to Jesus, God’s sacrifice;

In Him you will find the truth for your life,

He’s the Way,

For in Him there is no darkness.  
          
                                                                      © 2016 Deborah Therese de Jong

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