painting

My heart explodes with colors as we travel hand in hand.

Green, the sprawling field we wander like a whispered prayer.

Yellow, the tiny flowers you place in my curly hair.

Blue, the boundless, cloudless sky that seems to sing above.

Purple, the quiet color of my careful love.

I hand you my heart on a palette, and feel you dip a gentle brush

into pink, the morning sun that rises silent, slow, and fair.

Into peach, the new spring tulips blooming by themselves somewhere.

Into lavender, the lullabies you sing into my ear.

I imagine a fuller painting waiting just beyond my fear.


day 27 prompt: bloom

colibrí

My shame is the ruby-red throat of a hummingbird
who swallows her heart as she zips through the sky.
Hovering in the trees, sparkling emerald-green,
longing for her beats per minute to decline.

If you happen to spot us, listen to the songs
that spring from our throats at dusk and at dawn.
If you can keep up, then please sing along.
We'll choke up our hearts til we believe they belong.


day 26 prompt: unravel

day by day

Today's song is the hymn "Day by Day and with Each Passing Moment." This song feels to me like a hug. It is a Swedish hymn, written by Lina Berg in 1865 after the death of her father. This hymn makes me think of my grandmother, who sings it in Swedish: "Blott en Dag," and reminds me that the Lord's mercies are new each morning, and He is with me each day.




Lyrics:

Day by day and with each passing moment, strength I find to meet my trials here;
trusting in my Father's wise bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear.
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure gives unto each day what he deems best-
lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure, mingling toil with peace and rest.

Every day the Lord himself is near me with a special mercy for each hour;
all my cares he fain would bear, and cheer me, he whose name is Counselor and Pow'r.
The protection of his child and treasure is a charge that on himself he laid;
"As your days, your strength shall be in measure," this the pledge to me he made.

Help then in every tribulation so to trust your promises, O Lord,
that I lose not faith's sweet consolation offered me within your hold Word.
Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting, e'er to take, as from a father's hand,
one by one, the days, the moments fleeting, till I reach the promised land.

potential

Can I put you in a poem?
Can I hang you on a wall in my home?
Can I hold you, but not just in my head?
Can I keep you, like a book I've never read?

Keep you, like that book, on my shelf for ages-
so much potential in its pages.
I dare not open it up and find
it's not what I built it up to be in my mind.

No, instead, can I take you off the shelf
and open the book of your beautiful self?
Step into the unknown story inside,
letting go of my pictures, my poems, my pride.


day 18 prompt: protect