Cypress At Sunset

With parting glance
   and somber nod,
   The sun retired unto its room;
The closing night
   with shadows close,
   Demurely bowed ere spreading gloom.

- D. Benning

Cypress at Sunset by Christine Duhon,  https://www.facebook.com/christine.duhon.39

Sunset on the Kanawha

Patrick Street Bridge, Charleston West Virginia, photographer by Kevin Jack, https://www.kevinjackphotography.com/

The darkening clouds,
   midst fiery skies,
with lengthening shadows,
   the daylight dies.
Yet mirrored in quiet waters
   as an echo from the day,
Caught on the river as polished brass,
   undaunted by encroaching gray.
And slung between the halves
   a bridge connecting truth:
left to right, and sky to land,
   with mem'ries from my youth.

- D. Benning

Kanawha River, Charleston West Virginia, photographed by Kevin Jack, https://www.kevinjackphotography.com/

See also his facebook page.

To God Thy Way Commending

To God thy way commending,
Trust him whose arm of might,
The heavenly circles bending,
Guides every star aright:
The winds, and clouds, and lightning,
By his sure hand are led;
And he will dark shades brightening.
Show thee what path to tread.
 

Although to make God falter,
The powers of hell combine,
One jot they cannot alter
Of his all wise design:
All projects and volition
Of his eternal mind,
Despite all opposition,
Their due fulfillment find.

No more, then, droop and languish,
Thou sorrow stricken soul;
Even from the depths of anguish,
Whose billows over thee roll,
Thy Father's hand shall draw thee:
In hope and patience stay,
And joy will soon shed over thee
An ever brightening ray.

All faithless murmurs leaving,
Bid them a last good night,
No more thy vexed soul grieving,
Because things seem not right;
Wisely his scepter wielding,
God sits in regal state,
No power to mortals yielding,
Events to regulate.

Trust with a faith untiring
In thine Omniscient King,
And thou shalt see admiring
What he to light will bring.
Of all thy griefs, the reason
Shall at the last appear:
Why now denied a season,
Will shine in letters clear.

Then raise thine eyes to heaven,
Thou who canst trust his frown;
Thence shall thy meed be given,
The chaplet and the crown:
Thy God the palm victorious
In thy right hand shall plant,
Whilst thou, in accents glorious,
Melodious hymns shall chant.

—Paul Gerhard (1606-1676), translated by Frances Elizabeth Cox, in "Hymns from the German, "1864.

Based on Psalm 37: 5 - 7

 Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.

The Light!

The Light!
The piercing eye of the sun
   as it slowly descends into the sea
The colored mantle that it spreads
   above as if gathering a blanket before going down to sleep.

The Light!  The Light!
The golden glow of coming night!
   It warms the heart and calms the mind
As if in preparation to the coming dark and cold,
   a gentle kiss and promise of tomorrow!

- D. Benning

Photo by Don Young, Shutter Bay Photography,
https://www.facebook.com/shutterbayphotography/

The Beauty of a Rainfall

The beauty of rainfall at mid day drops
   like the gentle sounds of a pot boiling in another room;
   like a soft, caressing press
         of an ambient gray sonnet soundscape squeezed into a green painting,
         of blue sky crushed into gray and seasoned with sunlight's kiss.









The sky of a rainfall at mid day glimmers with
   a glowing moistness beneath lowering, frowning clouds;
   a shining radiance on the cusp of coming brightness;
   a gathering darkness that breaks like the cry no longer able to be contained.










The passing of a rainfall at mid day leaves behind
   the stunning blue of a well-watered, weathered sky;
   the soggy soil slowing impatient bustle and hurry;
   the shimmering puddles reflecting parting clouds riding across watery trails;

        And my heart washed from cares—if only for a moment—
            while listening to the rain which at mid day falls.

- D. Benning