Blowin' in the Wind: My Delight

(Blowin’ in the Wind is a regular feature on my blog consisting of an assortment of nature writings – hymns, songs, prayers, scriptures, poems or other things – pieces I may not have written but that inspire me. I trust they will do the same for you.)

John Leax (pronounced 'lex') is a retired English professor but current Poet-in-Residence at Houghton College in the Genesee Valley of western New York, a Christian liberal arts school. I became acquainted with his work years ago through an NPR interview, where on air he read this poem contained in his 2000 book Out Walking. The poem captures my own spirit toward a small bit of earth God has blessed Gail and me to 'own' in the Northwoods of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

It is God's good pleasure to delight us with His creation, with what brings God delight. I pray that in some way this poem, no, this entire blog project, will bring its readers a deeper delight with, and stewardship of, God's very, very good earth.

my delight, by John Leax

Though you have made the earth

for your delight,

I walk your woods and find

in hemlock, pine and poplar

shelter

from the burning of your sun,

and fuel to warm me

when your cold descends.

I find streaming from a hillside

clean water

that slakes my thirst,

and in the wildness of its flow,

trout that feed my hunger.

At your meadow’s edge,

I pluck raspberries from the cane

and wonder at the thrasher

in the briars.

With every turn I find

extravagance –

the unending revelation

of your joy’s abundance.

What other end should I imagine

for goldenrod and buttercup,

for bloodroot, trillium, and phlox,

for jack-in-the-pulpit

and Queen Anne’s lace, for coltsfoot,

mullein, vetch and lily,

for loosestrife and forget-me-not?

I am confounded…

What harmony within yourself

led you to make your pleasure

and my needs be one?

What awful purpose then

led you to place

your pleasure in my keeping?

What discord now tempts me

to seize what you have made

and call it mine?

The fitness of this place

for my abode portends

(Photography by Rick and Gail Mylander)

a grace beyond

my strength to hold.

I must be held or fall.

With these words affirming

my delight, I yield

my inclination  to name

my own what can be only yours.

Let my delight be as it must,

yours and yours alone.

~~ RGM, June 29, 2013