A Poem from one of our visitors

Carol Hensley, a name you’ll know from this website and a person you’ll hopefully recognize from contact with the Abbey, passed on this poem to me for posting. It was composed by Debra Shultz, one of our guests at the Retreat House.

I’ve attmpted posting verse in the past but “trashed” the attempts because the matrix I use for the NEWS doesn’t do what I’m trying to do. Let’s hope I don’t obscure your reading pleasure with my compromise!

Bare limbs grasp floating flakes/In hushed solitude, my soul awakes.

Life’s duties I’ve left behind/As this retreat calms my mind.

Lone egret in quiet flight/Mirrors land below of white.

Black bulls and cardinals red/Contrast starkly on snow untread.

Clapboard barns and silos tall/Beneath foothills farms are small.

Tractor wheels leave marks behind/With shapes similar to the human spine.

Sifting clouds and skies of gray/Usher a reflective, restful day.