Ellen Grace Olinger
afternoon sun
fills the lamp
on a file cabinet
my study
where I have
read and prayed
through many years
I may read
from a book read
during a difficult time
and now years
have gone by
and I read again
with gratitude
and hope for today
and tomorrow
small books
from small presses
by my chair
their cover art
design and poems
pictures of my life
these many years
books on the shelf
Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty:
neither do I exercise myself in great matters,
or in things too high for me.
Surely I have behaved and quieted myself,
as a child that is weaned of his mother:
my soul is even as a weaned child.
Psalm 131: 1 – 2
reading the poets
of my parents’
generation
their voices
return
Ellen Grace Olinger
SMILE, 2010
They Gave Us Life: Celebrating Mothers, Fathers & Others in Haiku; Edited by Robert Epstein (2017, Middle Island Press).
Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us,
but unto thy name give glory,
for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
Psalm 115: 1
Morning Glories, Pansies and Honeysuckle Drawing
is courtesy of Reusable Art.
