carnival glass, photo by Janine Pickett
WATER OF LIFE
High above Forsyth Creek
the mountainside
is dappled in apricot gold.
Just below a thicket of blood
red maples conceal a spring.
Two water strings
dangling with the iridescence
of icicles spill from a fractured
boulder and flow around
an ancient root. Forced from
darkness these droplets rejoice,
glistening with new birth
like pearls of rain.
The scrambling climb
is worth the struggle
just to sit in that tiny alcove
and taste again the freshness,
the vitality that reminds me
of Jesus’ living water.
These shimmering gems
visualize the abundance
of Jesus’ promise, the transfusion
that has changed my life.
I fill my bottles so others
can taste this earthly sweetness,
if only a symbol
of Jesus’ eternal delight.
*
cardinal, photo by the author, Mark Weinrich
CANYON FLAME
We have been drawn
down canyon like moths
to flame. The redbird is sowing
notes on the Spring breeze
warning others of his kind
to stay away.
He blazes a tree peak
like a signal fire, clinging
to the sparest of limbs,
tail flung full like a sail
balancing in the wind.
He spins the thread of a song
fluted notes spinning faster and faster
finishing with a trill.
We are caught up in the glow
of wonder. Unable and unwilling
to move on. Such burning
excitement is rare.
The beauty of knowing
one’s place in this world
the God-given joy
of brightness.
*
A FORETASTE OF HEAVEN
The vivid shimmer on
Grandma’s carnival glass bowl
was like rainbows I chased
through sprinklers
yet didn’t vanish
beneath my fingers.
Grandma called it, iridescence.
I found a treasury in musty
lakeside shells, shifting pink
to blue with the turn of my hand.
I laughed at mallard drakes,
gobbling bread we cast;
their dark heads flickered purple,
blue, then green.
But none could match the hummers’
dazzling neon glow, flash-dancing
ruby to emerald-green as they
zipped in and out from the feeder.
I wonder if all these rainbows
from Grandma’s carnival glass bowl
to the pearly shells, from the hummer’s
throat to the mallard’s head,
are these a foretaste
of the brightness yet to come?
When we gather
on that glorious morning
to revel and behold
the rainbow completed
around the Throne.
“The One seated there looked like jasper and carnelian, and
a rainbow that gleamed like an emerald encircled the throne.”
(Revelation 4:3)
Mark Weinrich is a gardener, hiker, musician, cancer survivor, and retired pastor. His work has been published in numerous literary and inspirational magazines. He has also sold eight children’s books and currently has two fantasy novels on Kindle.