Poem: Jasmine Tea

Jasmine Tea

It's taste is gentler than you remember,
more subtle and complex, as if
with age you can better sense
the layers of taste, better appreciate

it's imperfect gentleness, no longer
needing power or strength
in quite the same way
as you demanded it in the bloom
of exuberant and oblivious youth.

There are flowers in it, white
and shredded, reminding you of dogwoods
and the smell of magnolia in the distant
past.

With the second sip, you are young again,
belying the wrinkled truth of your face, and
your heart, once so tired,

lifts like the dancing steam
drifting upward from the cup,
white and mysterious and always,
always, disappearing.

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And yes, I really have recently rediscovered the subtle delight that is Jasmine tea,

Tom

Poem: Hosea 13:5

Hosea 13:5

You have cut back the thorns,
the only survivor of summer's drought,
those thorny fronds threatening
the color of God's summer, that

if left, would choke the life, the color
from the garden,
then die themselves,
a lesson you have learned

in your own life,
once so choked with thorns
that you could not see past them
to the life beckoning,

the life desired for you,
lovingly prepared
by a God who loves,
but expects you, not him

to be the gardener.

And so you have learned the lesson,
that even in the wilderness,
there can be life, joy and flowers,
that color can survive

even your own efforts
to starve it away,
and those things you have cut away,
those things long lost

are not lost at all,
but merely compost
for the coming spring.



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The verse in the bible that this poem refers to reads: "I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought." It is from this morning's bible reading.

The picture was taken near Dorset, VT, this summer. You can click on it for a larger version.

Tom