Nestled in the Woods

Ol’ Blackberry Ben saw his shadow today
    and slipped himself back in his hole.
“Another six weeks I will stow me away
    to live underground like a mole.
Those humans can live with the ice and the snow
    and fatten some more by the fire,
While I shall go hungry and thinner I’ll grow
    as I in my burrow retire.
But ah! In six weeks I’ll emerge with my clan
    to feast and to bask in the sun,
While citizens toil–both the woman and man–
    when once the warm weather has come.
Now I have the best of the bargain of life–
    a cozy home under the land:
I sleep in the winter along with my wife–
    my children there close by my hand.
But humans must worry with funds and with food;
    they fret about how to keep warm;
They run to and fro in a terrible mood,
    concerned they’ll be caught in a storm.
They should learn a lesson from groundhogs below–
    a lesson from under the sod:
To quit their pursuits and just go with the flow,
    and let everything up to God.”

BB/jwb

There is that time of morning
Between confusing dream and conscious thought,
Before the darkness dissipates—is conquered by the sun,
Before some thought of warning
Or trouble creeps back in my mind of naught
But yesterday’s unwise mistakes and duties left undone.

I waken with a hoping—
A clean page willing to be written full
Of joys and new accomplishing that I’ve not done before—
Desire for a coping—
A rise above an errant, worldly pull,
And write that leaf where faith grows wings that take their flight and soar.

In my strength I’d be failing
In each endeavor for a perfect flight.
Those wings would droop and plummet me to depths below the ground.
In God’s care I’ll keep sailing
And reach beyond a fore-accomplished height,
For in His arms I’ve ridden free and lofty summits found.