To all our readers and friends:
a very happy holiday season and best wishes for 2010!

The Old Potting Shed

Upended empty flower pots, potatoes in a sack,
   Geraniums from off the deck have all been carted back
Into the shelter from the cold, and settled down to bed
   Among the welter of garden tools lodged in the Potting Shed.



Bright Summer offers easeful life when cares seem far away
   And Winter’s just a word to think of on some other day
And Sun is warm, the rain is light, there’s food right close at hand,
   The world seems full of joy and fun and lounging about in the land.

  

All through the bright and sunny days the Birds have flown and played
   Along with Grasshoppers and ‘Coons until the flowers fade.
Then carefree wandering through brush and browsing seeding grass
   Turns into anxious twitterings as Summer’s bounties pass.



A pair of little Winter Wrens have heard brash Winter’s call.
   In through the space between the roof and greenhouse plastic wall
They hastily return to find their home among the eaves
   As winds blow sharp and snow comes down to cover the fallen leaves.



For when the press of Wind and Want and Winter’s heavy weight
   Puts to an end the sunny days and closes Summer’s gate,
Then Grasshoppers and ‘Coons and Wrens, we hope, are always led
   Along the path that leads to home and the warm Old Potting Shed.