Lost Beauty

Twilight is the loveliest time of the day,
Viewed from my open window.
One dusk the sun was a ball of fire,
Softened by thin layers of pearl.
Once opal strands stretched across the sky,
A necklace ready for the moon to wear.
Some times the world's gold is hoarded in the west,
Reflected on roofs and panes far below.
When I am not at my window at twilight
I am lonely, longing for lost beauty.

Nancy Richey Ranson

Dancing with the Dawn

O lovely light, that dances with the dawn
In twinkling golden slippers on the lawn.

Nancy Richey Ranson

Bricolage :: Flowers for Mothers

Dedicated to anyone missing their Mother today

You scattered beauty as the rose sheds leaves,
My mother, as you journeyed down life's ways.
You wove love's tapestry, as moonlight weaves
Rare shadow-patterns through a silver haze.
You lifted sorrows from the burdened mind,
And comforted the weary and distressed;
With gentle understanding, helpful, kind,
You brought the pain-wracked ease, the weary rest.
And now that you are gone, no monument
Of massive stone, however deftly carved,
Could fittingly portray the strength you lent
The sick and desolate and beauty-starved.
Remembering, I'll plant a thousand flowers
To banish suffering through countless hours.


My Mother
by
Nancy Richey Ranson




Clicking on today's photo will reveal a textured background image created from this photo of dried flowers preserved from my Bennie's memorial service in April of 2010 . . . which, along with a texture from Shadowhouse Creations, was used to create a double-exposure collage in Picasa . . . and was then texturized using IrvanView . . . please do let me know if you use this for a project . . . I would like to see what ideas you come up . . .

Bricolage :: Whirlwinds

If they should bury me apart from you,
Who loved you well through years too brief for love;--
Whose parting then was marked by pain and rue--
If they should think my heart unconscious of
Deep grief, or my mute body all unknowing
Because so powerless to guide their feet
To your bright hill where desert winds are blowing,
Aroma-fraught from fields, remote and sweet;
If then some fragment of your earthly form
Should drift atop the mound that marked your place,
And view afar a sand-filled, spiral storm,
It would discover in that cloud my face.
Your dust, Beloved, would rise and dance with glee,
Another whirlwind, cognizant of me.


Nancy Richey Ranson

 

The textured whirlwind image was created from the really boring photo of tonight's Full Buck Moon . . . using features in the free programs, Picasa and IrfanView . . . please do share with me if you use this for something . . . I would like to see what ideas you come up with . . . 

Morning Sun

Today I wove a pattern in the sun
Embroidered memories with threads of gold
And always where you came into the weave
I tied a knot and prayed that it would hold.

Nancy Richey Ranson

Bricolage :: Pink Blossoms

The flower images used here started out as the following slightly out-of-focus photo of the blooms on another weed on my property . . . I'm not sure if it is tie vine . . . or bindweed . . . or wild morning glory . . . or what! . . . anyway . . . 



I opened the above image in IrfanView . . . and applied the oil painting effect . . . and then the rock effect . . . and that yielded the following image . . . 



The next one is cropped from the above image . . . 



as is this one . . . 



The verse on the collage . . . which was created in Picasa . . . is from a little book of poetry called Texas Evening . . . by Nancy Richey Ranson . . . who was Poet Laureate of Texas from 1941 'til 1943 . . .

Beauty Shared

. . . And marvelous and magical,
Across my drab, bare fence,
The morning glories climbed and bloomed
In blue magnificence. . . .

from
Texas Evening
by
Nancy Richey Ranson
Poet Laureate of Texas 1941-1943