Patricia Wolf

The Earth

In the beginning darkness spread its veil,
before the setting of the first golden sunset,
earlier than man stepping on the earth;
at first ALL was righteous, good, upright.
Originally, it was God who made a perfect, pleasant place for all to live in harmony!

In the end, it becomes the creation’s honor,
as time trickles to an expectant climax,
to finish the race with full responsibility,
respect and in the resolution of all time
tending to things with a positive closure.
One day soon, there will be a new Earth!

“The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein. For He has founded it upon the seas, And established it upon the waters.”
Psalm 24:1-2

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.”
Revelation 21:1

Linking to: https://earthweal.com/2021/04/19/earthweal-earth-day-challenge-restore-our-earth/

Spring Hope

If I could paint a landscape of spring,
to reveal the magic it can truly bring,
it would be of forsythia’s brilliant show
where yellow blooms abundantly grow!
Of a carpet of green after months of tan;
cool, curly blades of grass, budding leaf,
and new flower bulbs deep in dirty sand.
Warmth in the fresh air as if to know
its lifeblood helps makes all things flow.
A-flight are flocks of birds which sing,
soar skies; oversees them as does a king.

If I could capture the blessings of spring,
of a life lived in Christ and what it brings;
it could take weeks or years to show,
it would be glorious with fruits that grow,
it would reflect on Jesus Christ the man,
it would not be freed from trials or grief,
though it is difficult to understand or know.
There’s a godly peace that comes to flow;
even in sorrow one can hope and sing
praises to our returning Creator and King!

P. Wolf; poet & author

A Vine

What is a branch without a leaf,
a lovely, lush, living gem of green?
Where does the vine first connect
beneath the dark, deep, dim earth?
When does the branch give birth
to tender bud, to juicy fruit, to life?
Why does the branch bare badly;
it has dried and is no longer rooted.

Without sturdy roots,
a branch becomes just tinder;
embers in the fire.

P. Wolf; poet & author

“I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” John 15:5

Linking to https://earthweal.com/2021/04/12/earthweal-weekly-challenge-toward-an-ecopoetry/

Alexis Ann’s Amazing Adventure (book1)

I’m proud to announce my new children’s chapter book for ages 6-9. It was released today on Amazon. The first book in this adventure series focuses on children’s dramatic play and the character of Paul from the book of Acts. Your kids will enjoy sailing the high seas was Alexis and her younger brother, Ollie!

P. Wolf

www.amazon.com/dp/B091WJGQ1F/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_glt_fabc_R9YPZNBZSYRBZB191RGM

A Tale

Translucent wings flutter as stain glass
beauties swoop and then soar for a meal;
in days long gone another dragon spieces
spied the landscape looking for unique
treasure other than pesky, tiny misquotes.

White tailed rabbit nibbling!

Emerald islands float, tufted succulents
bouncing, blooming, bursting forth in sun;
a healthy meal at duck pond. Circular
vegetation, a meal on watery floating plate, becomes first course before meaty frogs.

Red tailed hawk perch high in pine!

It’s here hard, hallowed turtles tower tumble
in and out, at will, on bundles of thick
marsh grass, weathered wood and speckled rocks to view the gathering insects, reptiles,
amphibians, mammals and piercing sun.

White tailed deer sipping pond water!

Beneath slithering snakes show an exotic dance while frogs hold their stand frozen in place, muskrats cowering in dry corners of muck munching on snails delights bobbing up and down walls of his cattail den.

Ringed tailed raccoon resting in branches!

Bubbles breathe to water’s edge, stirring stagnant pond. Aerating life dug deep in earth made dungeon; inhale-exhale habitat year after year. Courting life and death over and over again until generations melt away.

Red tailed fox passing looking for a meal!

“As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart.”
Proverbs 27:19

Linking to: https://earthweal.com/2021/04/05/earthweal-weekly-challenge-the-teeming/

P. Wolf; I have a covered porch which overlooks this marshy pond. With each season the pond’s face changes. New things to see and enjoy!

Easter Morning: a Resurrection

Months have passed like dawn and dusk,
the year the world was unable to join
to celebrate an event which changed
history; not just history but one’s eternity.

As morning sun rises in warm eastern sky,
bird songs echo in the budding woodland,
the air is vibrant with life as if a new born
has been birthed; but it’s not this moment

to wonder of. What about one’s eternity?
There was a year the world did not celebrate Christ’s coming forth from the tomb; as isolation locked loved ones from us.

I can’t help but wonder of being isolated from our Redeemer; what a cruel eternity to enter into when so much more is available to those who are willing to accept Christ as Savior!

“I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.”
Philippians 3:10

Breaking Stillness

Still there’s a slice of ice
encasing the marsh as glass;
stiff, sharp becomes a screen
protecting you from prey.
Visions of rich, dense duck weed
and brown, earthy tuffs of
marsh grass huddle
waiting for cloudless sky.
But morning chill tells
another story of early spring.

Buried deep you rest. With scent
of spring playing games of
hide and seek; you find no
aroma of wild rose only unscented
seeds from brown, barefaced
bundled of reeds and cat-tails
spinning, dancing atop silvery
layer of ice; your roof-top sky light.
Your throaty call echoes beneath;
stiff in the icy entrapment.

Yet, this is your woodland nest
here life and death linger in stiff pools
of decaying waters rich with microscopic
bacteria; so minuscule even your bulgy
protruding eyes unable to find them.
Your passion overriding all, your
mission drives you forward as your
need to seek a mate becomes all;
this is why you were created and it
consumes your very existence.

A warning, when the ice melts
cranes and geese are waiting
to have you as a tasty meal.
Sing quickly, call out rhythmic
chips, chatter and chants;
for somewhere she waits past
all still danger to dance awhile as
it has been written in the book
of “Spring Peepers Logs of Love”;
for now the image in ice is only you!

“These all wait for You, That You may give them their food in due season. What You give them they gather in; You open Your hand, they are filled with good. You hide Your face, they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; And You renew the face of the earth.”
Psalm 104: 27-30

northern cricket frog is a species of small hylid frog native to the United States and northeastern Mexico. Despite being members of the tree frog family, they are not arboreal. It has two recognized subspecies.
Wikipedia

Northern cricket frogs sometimes occur in cattail ( Typha sp.) thickets as well as in other terrestrial and/or aquatic shoreline vegetational assemblages .
https://amphibiaweb.org/species/670

Other treefrogs in the northern cricket frog’s range are the spring peeper, the western chorus frog and the gray treefrog. The spring peeper has a dark X-shaped blotch on the back. The western chorus frog has three dark continuous or broken lines down the back. The gray treefrog has a light spot with a dark border under each eye and bright orange or yellow inner thighs. The cricket frog appears to have “warts” like a toad but lacks the large parotoid glands that toads have behind each eye. The clicking call of the northern cricket frog may be difficult to distinguish from that of some marsh birds.
https://ontarionature.org/programs/citizen-science/reptile-amphibian-atlas/northern-cricket-frog/

For decades I’ve looked forward to late March and spring again here in Wisconsin. First, the red winged black birds arrive with cranes and geese. Then the air is filled with a chorus of spring peepers. Their voice is a melody of a thousand vocal musicians filling the halls of my woodland. Come late April there is no pond side sitting. Their song so intense, one needs to close all windows. Yet, those early sounds bring joy to my heart. P. Wolf; poet & author

Linking to: https://earthweal.com/2021/03/29/earthweal-weekly-challenge-turning-points-chthulucene-squiggles/

One Hundred Stood

One hundred stood shading;
tall, trusting, thriving trees
till the heavens opened
their mouth like a multitude of
mottled black humpback whales;

spouting, raging upon earth.
Pounding, pounding, pounding
huge, hungry, hurtful torrents
of rain racing and running past
and though my hundred; blood

flowing in the earth rooted vain
landscapes now lapping at once
study, towering trunks with bark
oozing crying like a child in need
of comfort. But there was no one

who could aid in their clamity
for disaster had done its deed.
Thick husky trunks wore water
boots which would be their last
apparel, as dragon flies frolicked

upon the surface of a newly
birthed pond where once seedling
grew and thrived in rich woodland
that canopied my sunny back yard.
Water still flows… now from my eyes.

“God is our refuge and strength, a very ready help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth shakes and the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.”
Psalm 46:1-3

It’s been over a decade since the flood affected more than one hundred trees. Water was almost knee high in a place where garden, fruit trees and play structure had occupied. Our woodland surrounded the acre of land. Within a few years tree after tree began to wither and die. Some still stand today rotting upright waited to tumble to the earth and become rich soil. Not only does man clear the earth, but nature itself seems to be in conflict.

P. Wolf, poet & author posting at: https://earthweal.com/2021/03/22/earthweal-weekly-challenge-deforestation-last-stand-at-fairy-creek/

Journaling Wisconsin: Sandhill Cranes

Elegant, lengthy, lovely legs
trailing in March breeze;
outstretched Victorian neck
curved, crooked cleverly
striving for morning sun.
Warbling, warbling melody
etching news in cluttered sky,
“Sandhills Cranes with scarlet
mascara have finally arrived!”
If only they would return my
gaze when summer swelters in.

Whether stepping singly across a wet meadow or filling the sky by the hundreds and thousands, Sandhill Cranes have an elegance that draws attention. These tall, gray-bodied, crimson-capped birds breed in open wetlands, fields, and prairies across North America
allaboutbirds.org

At night, both species of cranes prefer to roost in shallow wetlands or rivers. … In wetlands, sandhill and whooping cranes eat a variety of animals, including birds (mostly nestlings and eggs), rodents, snakes, frogs (adults and tadpoles), insects, fish, snails, mussels, crayfish, and turtles.
https://www.aphis.usda.gov/wildlife

Sandhill Cranes are known for their dancing skills. Courting cranes stretch their wings, pump their heads, bow, and leap into the air in a graceful and energetic dance.
allaboutbirds.org

P.Wolf, poet & author… I actually saw this tender dance one summer afternoon as I sat on my back porch staring out on our marsh. It was stunning as is the Sandhill’s Creator who waits for all people to follow Him.

“Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.”
Jeremiah 8:7

Dog Goodbyes

It’s been a few years now,
days, weeks, then months;
yet his stare still sojourns,
stuck in my healing heart.

What is it about memories
muddling minds; awakening
emotions buried deep then
overturning mended heart?

It was a pleasant March
surrounded by new birth;
cranes, cardinals, crows
shared the open spring skies.

What I didn’t know was death
invades at will; wearing weary
apparel even on lovely days
when birds sing in full chorus.

It was our last moments,
his eyes filled with love and
longing to remain, to be at
my side strolling spring paths;

No longer ours to share!

https://earthweal.com/2021/03/15/earthweal-weekly-challenge-the-animal-gaze/

“He heals the brokenhearted
And binds up their wounds.
He counts the number of the stars;
He calls them all by name.
Great is our Lord, and mighty in power;
His understanding is infinite.
Psalm 147:3-5

Linking to: https://earthweal.com/2021/04/19/earthweal-earth-day-challenge-restore-our-earth/

P. Wolf; poet & author

P. Wolf; poet & author

Linking to https://earthweal.com/2021/04/12/earthweal-weekly-challenge-toward-an-ecopoetry/

Linking to: https://earthweal.com/2021/04/05/earthweal-weekly-challenge-the-teeming/

P. Wolf; I have a covered porch which overlooks this marshy pond. With each season the pond’s face changes. New things to see and enjoy!

Linking to: https://earthweal.com/2021/03/29/earthweal-weekly-challenge-turning-points-chthulucene-squiggles/

P. Wolf, poet & author posting at: https://earthweal.com/2021/03/22/earthweal-weekly-challenge-deforestation-last-stand-at-fairy-creek/

P.Wolf, poet & author… I actually saw this tender dance one summer afternoon as I sat on my back porch staring out on our marsh. It was stunning as is the Sandhill’s Creator who waits for all people to follow Him.

P. Wolf; poet & author… yep, I cried while writing this.