A Poem: Love Because

Today I need the peace of quiet things.
The beauty to remind me I’m worthy.

The beauty of God’s signature.
The letter without words, framed with the view.

Worthiness comes and goes
according to feeling, or memory.

But the peace of quiet things,
the beauty unadorned,

but which forever greens outside the window,
is a gift without the earning.

Not an afterthought
but a promise, signed and sealed.

Expressed in the way the earth renews
with its green covering.

Beauty teaches, everything that’s worthy
lies fertile for growth.

Beauty, given without expectation of return,
is more than a gracious gift.

It is love because,
just because we are enough

even lying here in the dark.

Yes, today I need the peace of quiet things.
The emerging green.

The way the grasses hit the sunlight,
the seed-laden shafts ripe with next season’s gain.

Yes, everything that lies fertile
is ripe yet for growth.

Beauty which is God’s signature,
and the letter without words framed with a view,

gives us our entitlement.

A crown of leaves,
inset with seed-studded jewels.

Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
January 2019