I Love to Loiter at a Brook

It's hard not to be a bit delirious with delight

when February is more like end of April!

So I took advantage of every opportunity this week to 'play' outside!

On Tuesday the brook was still breaking free!

Today, after a few melt-days it rolls and chuckles without any snow to slow it down!

Be Still and know that I am God

Ps. 46:10

I love to loiter by a brook, to listen to its timeless tune

To taste life’s purest pleasure without wishing for the stars and moon

To note, with tender satisfaction that which progress cannot press

To find within its sanguine song a kind of child-like happiness

To chuckle as its chubby chortle cheers hearts without sound advice

A lithesome lilt of silver sparkles and deep darker tones suffice

I love to linger in the counsel chambers of willow and birch

Or, perch upon a makeshift pew in nature’s treetop frescoed church

And there to hear the voice of God uninterrupted by my plea

As awe silences reasoned-why with nature’s gentle empathy

With whispers from the wizened pine, with warble from the little bird

To remind me Whose will prevails and whose purpose is undeterred

I love to set aside my sack of sorrows on brook-banks, to sit

And ponder He who holds tomorrow and knows every bit of it

To listen, then to catch this joy; 'be still and know that I am God'

Ah, nothing is impossible with He who rules sky, sea and sod 

And nothing quite compares to sitting at His feet beside a brook

To be content with wonder-plunder, I don't find if I don't look 

I love to loiter by a brook, to court its buoyant countenance

To reconcile the recompense of youth with Truth’s resilience

To want for nothing as I listen to its unfatiguing tunes

To count among my most treasured mementoes those fond afternoons

When I would leave behind the grindstone filled with constant care and chore

When I would loiter by a brook and find what I was looking for

© Janet Martin

I love to linger in the counsel chambers of willow and birch

Or, perch upon a makeshift pew...

 in nature’s treetop frescoed church...