Golden Willow

I wrote this piece for my daughter Tanis, and son-in-law Darren, for their 10^th wedding anniversary, September 11, 2009.  The other part of my gift to them, was a weeping golden willow tree that adorns their back lawn on their farm near Teeswater.  This embodies my forever love from a mother’s heart.

Golden Willow

Weeping willow marking a decade

Let us grow within your golden boughs

Lean low and bless the ground beneath you with your sweetness

Breathe upon the mist that’s lying low

Rise to guard them, blessed family

Held so dearly to my heart

Keep growing, bowing, swaying gently

Showing life and reaching out when we’re apart

Raise yourself to heights, then shine there

Golden, weeping tears of purest gold

Shed your light and never spare your sweetness

Let my essence stay when I’ve grown old

Weeping willow, glow there, cast kind shadows

Let our growth meld, hold it tight

Lend your knowledge, blessed to these sweet girls

Guide these young parents, locked in endless love-light

Sway gently, give your heart and be my presence

With gentle, bowing branches, drifting low

Like angels’ wispy wings, feathered leaves unfurled

Shine then, and cast your sacred, golden glow.

With love forever, Mom

The Angel's Song and Just a Walk With You

The Angels’ Song

So long I stood in darkness ‘til the Lord lit up my sight

I looked and saw the angels - stand in ethereal light

Again I looked and then perceived the angels ‘round His throne

Thousands, millions sang His songs and no one stood alone

‘Round His throne they stayed and sang with all their heavenly might

All living beings were singing, what a glorious, wondrous sight!

In the end all fell to worship and the bells of heaven rang

Every knee was bent in gratitude, still the angels sang and sang

The Light had shed all darkness and every heart was pure

I knelt in utter love for Him, as the angels' songs rang sure

I melted into gladness as His arms surrounded me

And walked across the streets of gold, right into Eternity.

cailin raine

Just a Walk With You

The morning sun spilled ‘cross my floor

And I looked to see the rays

They played across the bedroom walls

In their light and happy ways

It took me back to way back when

As I took your Hand and walked

With You each day amid Your light

And we talked and talked and talked

How could I have forgotten

How You stayed to play with me?

Just like the sunlight’s happy rays

We danced and I could see

The difference just a walk with You

Could make in every hour!

Just like the sunlight’s rays that shine

On each and every flower.

cailin raine

Apple Wood Fire

The apple wood was different

I’ve coaxed a fire in late fall

Slender sticks cut from Dad’s dead apple tree

Surprising, sweet scent accosts the nostrils

Worms its way inside your nose

Fills you with sugary warmth

Akin to maple syrup on warm pancakes

Aroma wafting towards your face

A subtle caressing of skin and sharpened senses

And blossoms in your mind.

The wood stove crackles and snaps

Like the branches on the summer, apple tree

Warmth penetrates and permeates

Inching its way into corners and cracks and closets

I fetch the plaid, throw blanket from the cold, spare room

And find the apple coziness there too.

Apple wood burns and gives a sweetness which

Hangs snugly in cinnamon air

The room is bathed in applesauce gold

I am curled in slumber on the grey, fur rug, toes content

Soft warmed hands like dough

Hair coiled like leaves about baby apples

I am caught in apple wood magic flames.

Sleep comes easily in front of the hearth

I dream of other gifts

Like the magic of sea grass turned silver

And waves that lap beneath the moon rising high

On a summer night when beach sand holds the warmth of the sun

My brown, bare toes quivering, kissed by the night dew

As I dance beside the shimmering, blazing waves.

Outside the frost burns white

On orange, shrunken pumpkins.

cailin raine

The Herb Cellar

Above me, the herb-scented ceiling reeks of sage, scent

And I suck it in, breathe the heavenly earthen aroma

Rafter-dry hanging bundles dangle with dust

Wood begetting arid plants of healing and sustenance

I breathe…

On the slanted cool of wooden chair supported, snug I sit

Comfort arms stroke my back as I lean on its straightness

Heady from the wood and the fragrance and the earth-scent

I revel in its firmness and I inhale the silence

I breathe…

Pots and pots, pile upon pile, they line up the walls

Pottery soldiers standing tall, strutting in procession

Stacked according to size, they frame and fill the wall-boards

With smooth crockery, sienna warmth

Hinting of a pregnant promise for growth and

Better things to come!

Wicker bushel basket bursting with the dryness of bundled

Fennel, savory, thyme, rosemary, lavender, parsley, mint

My tongue and senses are sharpened, my mind sentient

I ache with my love for it, and I breathe…

Wooden slats of floor lie cool beneath my feet, relaxed

Bare-pressed against the freshness, another earthen promise

There that I can feel in my toes and in my soul, an ancient

Oath of health and strength and growth and purpose

I worship the silence of the herb cellar and cherish the magic

I succumb to the dizzy scents in the dusty air

And I breathe.

cailin raine

Our House

There is a fuzzy old picture

Blurred dim in old black and white

Taken of a house held dear in memory

Soft in the luminous snow light.

It holds a precious spot in the valley

Where the hills gently meet the river bed

Where we walked with old shoes on the bottom

And with grubby, brown hands we were led.

In summer the rapids were singing

In winter the ice held us still

The house sits in shadows and memories

In my heart it remains, always will.

It speaks of a time which was simpler

Its ways were of water pump and shed

I danced in the moonlight in nighties

And then snuck upstairs to my bed.

In the morning the floor boards forgave me

Their squeak was of wooden and worn

My secret was kept in the rafters

And the spirit of writer was born.

I think of the chipmunks and squirrels

That scurried in long grass at night

As I watched for the dawn at my window

And waited for sweet morning light.

It was then that the sunlight brought gladness

As I hurried to bacon and eggs

And stood in the earth of the garden

On brown, sturdy, growing, young legs.

The house nestled there in the valley

Still calls to me some long, lonely nights

And I walk on the green of the rolling lawns

And again all of life just seems right.

cailin raine

Oh What A Song I Could Sing

If I could just see what kind of a girl

Would have emerged from life’s nurtured way.

If I could glimpse… just once her gay smile

And watch her lighthearted play.

Oh, what a girl who’d have taken that road

To dare life to bring happiness!

Oh, what a girl who would reach for the sun

And all on her path would be blessed.

I once was that girl who walked in the beams

Of the soft and romantic night moon.

I danced in the clouds and believed in the world

And knew that true love would come soon.

But along the way too much hurt came along

And slowly that spirit did fade

The sun didn’t shine and I sang not the song

And I paid for the life that I’d made.

Now a soft breeze blows just under the sun

And sometimes the waves lap the shore,

And I walk in the light of the full, silver moon

And believe that there still might be more.

For although much was lost and her spirit was tossed

She still soars with the eagle’s strong wings,

And inside of her heart on a soft summer night

There still is a song that she sings.

cailin raine