A picture. A poem

Be the garden - simple rhymes for complex times

by Sherry Boas

Step by step

Day by day

Let your heart

lead the way

Up the stairs

Down the rows

To the place
where loving grows

Practice patience

Pull out weeds

Concentrate
on simple needs

Be kind

Be nice

Steadfast...Go slow

Be the garden
that you sow

Step by step

Row by row

Be the garden

that you sow

Love is all around us

Love...is all around us

If you take the time to look

you might find

Love in plain sight

It's in the heart-shaped heads of cranes...

In garden plants...

And on tree trunks

It grows on stumps, in sand and all kinds of leaves

Once you start looking for Love

You'll find it everywhere

Nature offers us so many ways...

To express our love

to fill our days

 It's up to us to find a way

To make love part of every day 

Happy Valentine's Day

to Nature and all her wonders

May they last forever

💗

Saying Goodbye! Saying Hello!

For the past 10 years, you’ve welcomed me into your home.

Over steaming mugs of coffee and hot cups of tea, I’ve shared stories about plants and wildlife, home and family. Together we’ve strolled down meandering paths through oak and piney woods.

A path through the woods at our Groveland home

We’ve explored sandy shorelines and enjoyed early morning rows across still water. We’ve traveled to New Smyrna Beach, central Massachusetts and back in time to the years when I was a young mom on Cape Cod and a child growing up in Yardley, Pennsylvania.

Our long-ago handbuilt home on Cape Cod

It’s been an incredible journey.

Because of changes in the newspaper industry, today will be the last day my column will appear in the paper. But that doesn’t mean the journey ends. While we’ll no longer be meeting on the front page of the Lake Sentinel, I’ll continue to explore the world outside my door and share my findings with you in pictures, words, videos and poems. 

If anything, I will be more available than ever. You can find me 24/7 on my YouTube channel, Facebook page and especially on my website, www.sherryboas.com, where all my columns from the last 10 years are archived and where you can sign up to receive notification of new postings by email.

My daughter Jenny, who is visiting this week with her husband and our twin grandchildren, just interrupted my mental musings to ask if she could take my old aluminum rowboat out for a row.

“I don’t mean to bother you when you’re writing,” she sweetly said. “But I just wanted to know if it’s okay to take your boat out for a row.”

“Of course,” I replied. “Let me just show you a few things about the boat you should know before you go out.”

She said, “Oh, but I don’t want to take you away from your writing on your last column for the paper.”

Before I could say it was no bother, her husband, Brett, quipped, “This is your last chance to interrupt her on the last column for the paper, Jenny. You don’t want to miss that.”

Funny guy. But my son-in-law is right. It’s only appropriate that Jenny interrupt me when I’m working on an essay. I doubt if I’ve ever completed a piece for the newspaper or other publication in a single uninterrupted stretch. As a freelance writer working at home, my modus operandi has always been to take multiple breaks along the way to answer questions, help someone get food, find something that’s been misplaced or simply to allow my thoughts to congeal in a meaningful fashion.

And that’s also how I’m looking at this latest stage in a decade-long vocation — just another break in the regular order — a slight diversion in a rambling career of writing from the heart.

So thank you, dear reader, for welcoming me into your home. Thank you for your comments and suggestions, your support and encouragement. Rather than an end, consider this simply as a change of course. I hope you’ll come with me as we travel on. From sunrise to sunset, there’s still much to discover.

Without you, I’d still be writing but it wouldn’t be as much fun.

A poem and a picture for New Year's Eve

YOUR CHOICE...

by Sherry Boas

An optimist and pessimist await the New Year Hour

One with eager smile, one's expression sour.

The pessimist looks back and groans, "Time goes by so fast!"

The optimist looks back and grins, "More memories to last!"

The pessimist recalls the debts, the dollars thrown away.

The optimist recalls the gains, the values earned each day.

The pessimist sees struggles fought, times that trouble crossed.

The optimist sees each success and respects the cost.

The pessimist looks back and sighs, "I should have not done that."

The optimist: "How much I've learned..."  And gives himself a pat.

The pessimist says, "What a year!  I've never known such woe."

The optimist says, "What a year! ...Amazing how we grow."

One with eyes so used to seeing problems every day.

One with eyes so used to seeking out a better way.

An optimist and pessimist await the New Year Hour

One with eager smile, one's expression sour.

And when the midnight chime does ring both turn to look ahead

The optimist with hope and dreams, the pessimist with dread.

So pour a toast and raise a glass.  Take a drink until

Your glass reflects the year ahead:  Half empty or half full.

Remember others...

On this Thanksgiving day, remember that holidays are not joyous times for everyone.  There are many reasons why some people find it difficult to cope on days of celebration - especially those days that traditionally involve family gatherings.  

So, on holidays like today, be extra kind and attentive to others.  You don't have to do much to make a difference.  A warm smile, a tender touch, even a friendly face can ease the gloom in someone else's life.  

It only take a moment to be kind to another, but the effect of a caring gesture can last forever. 

The world can be a lonely place

If but for a friendly face

A few words said with kind intent

A smile, a hug, a compliment

Can brighten up a cloudy day

And chase the loneliness away 

Chickadee-dee-dee-dee-dee!

I have a special affection for chickadees.  When I was much younger with far fewer demands on my time, I spent hours outside our Cape Cod home patiently waiting for chickadees to eat sunflower seeds from my outstretched hand.  When the birds finally trusted me enough to land, it was the most incredible feeling.

Flash forward a good 40+ years and my affection for chickadees is as strong as ever.  While I no longer feed these sweet little birds from I hand, I enjoy watching them eat seeds from the birdfeeders in our yard.

Below is a recent picture I took of one of the many chickadees that now frequent our central Florida property accompanied by a few lines from a song I wrote when we were still living on the Cape.

Love in the woods

A poetic rhyme popped into my mind when I saw this tree on a bike ride through a park at New Smyrna Beach...

Admittedly, I have a thing about trees, especially trees with branches entwined.  Below is another poem and drawing I did a long time ago to illustrate this theme.

And one more image .  This time it wasn't exactly the trees themselves that inspired the thought but a heart-spaced growth on the tree bark that spoke the same theme.

Night light

Enjoying the view...

Two chairs face the lake

Metal table wedged between

Wild geraniums

Tufted cushions 

Stake the claim of nature's scheme 

I came for the view - to sit a while and watch the lake.  But when I arrived, I realized it had been a while, quite a while, since I'd sat there last.  Weeds - sprawling, feathery, flower-bedecked greenery - had woven their way in between the chair slats.  

I didn't sit down.

My intention was to take pictures of the water.  I wound up taking pictures of the chairs instead.

Celebrating poems

Simply Living
April 23, 2012

Poems were the storybooks of my childhood. They have always meant so much to me. Growing up, my two favorite collections were a 1936 edition of "The Best Loved Poems of the American People" and Robert Louis Stevenson's classic "A Child's Garden of Verses." The former — its cover long gone — still sits on a shelf in my bedroom. I always open it carefully so as not to disturb any of the pressed flowers and four-leaf-clovers placed years ago to mark special pages.

Sometime during high school and college, I discovered Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, Ogden Nash, Tennyson and Wordsworth. The verses of A.A. Milne, Shel Silverstein and Bill Peet took on special meaning once I started having children of my own.

I don't have many lines memorized, but a few select verses have taken root in my mind. The familiarity of the words, the sentiments, the rhymes and rhythms are balm to my spirit. Like the old friends they are, I revisit them frequently for comfort and joy.

Unlike me, my father-in-law, Ralph P. Boas, knew many poems by heart. His capacity for remembering words of whimsy, story poems and limericks was truly remarkable. His splendidly executed recitations never failed to amaze and entertain. I've always felt fortunate to have married into a family with such a gifted patriarch.

My father-in-law and I not only shared an appreciation for all things poetic, we shared a passion for composing our own poetry, too.

I wrote my first poem when I was 9 and have since filled many an old napkin, scrap of paper and computer file with my introspective meanderings. Poetry was the outlet for my teenage angst and helped me over the hurdles of young parenthood. I've written rhymes to commemorate special occasions and others that simply satisfied my need to express the moment.

On Thursday, in honor of National Poetry Month and Poem in Your Pocket Day, I invite anyone who shares my passion for poetry to join me at 7 p.m. at Yada Yada Pottery & Indie Coffee House located in WindHorse Wellness Center in Eustis. I'll be there with a few favorite verses to read aloud and I hope you will bring along a special poem or two, too. All types of poems are welcome.

In a world in which woeful and frightening events often take center stage, we can all use a dose of soothing contemplation. I invite anyone to come to this free event with or without a poem in his or her pocket. Come to listen. Come to share. Come to celebrate the power and beauty of the written word.

For more information about Poem in Your Pocket Day as well as links to thousands of poems visit poets.org.

Poem in Your Pocket Day
What: Informal gathering of people who enjoy poetry, their own or others.
When: 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday.
Where: Yada Yada Pottery & Indie Coffee House located in WindHorse Wellness Center, 351 Plaza Drive, Eustis.
Details: 352-735-1328, windhorseworld.com or yadayadapottery.com.
Cost: Free.