June 17, 2023

                   VERMEER

 

Great paintings

from this Dutch painter –

Johannes Vermeer –

getting us to see

the people in front of us -

The Lacemaker,

Girl With a Pearl Earring,

A Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window,

Girl With a Flute,

and many more.

He had an interesting life –

had 14 or 15 kids,

became a Catholic when it wasn’t allowed.

Well, when people see

his paintings, they become silent

as if in Church.

It only proves all is sacred,

all is holy,

all remains to be seen.

 

                                                                     © Reflections, Andy Costello7, 2023

 June 17,  2023

Quote for Today

"Earth's crammed with heaven,

And every common bush afire with God."

Elizabeth Barrett Btowning (1806-1861)

Aurora Leigh (1857) bk. 7. l. 821

June 16, 2023

 

DREAMS

 

There are too many meanings

for this word, “Dream.”

I have so many dreams:

hopes, fantasies, possibilities,

impossibilities, plans, visions.

They come to me during boring

sermons, speeches, meetings.

They come to me when I want

to be doing something else.

It’s good to have them.

I love it – when I can ask a kid –

“What’s your dream?” or when

I can ask someone in a nursing

home, “Did you do your dreams?”

“Did you do your dreams?”

I have – but I still have more

dreams waiting to wake up to.

Glad to say and think that – still.

(c) Andy Costello, Reflections

 June 16, 2023

Quote for Today

"Women deprived of the company of men pine, men deprived of company of women become stupid."

Anton Chekov (1860-1904)

Notebooks (1921)

 June 15,  2023

 

GROANING

 

“Oooooh!” and “Aaaaah!”

These are the sounds

taking place in the woods of my soul.

Add, “Uggh!” and “Aaagh!”

and I have my inner cries

and my deepest complaints.

Are these my prayers -

more real than those

on the prayer cards

or in my prayer book?

Are these the sounds

that nobody hears but me?

How about YOU, O God?

Do YOU listen in – in my soul?

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello

 June 15, 2023

Quote for Today

"Nothing to be done without a bribe I find, in love as well as law."

Susannah Centlivre (c. 1668-1723)

English actress and dramatist,

The Perjured Husband  (1700)  act  3, sc. 3

June 14, 2023

 

CHANGED

 

I just got transferred

from the ocean to the country,

Long Branch, New Jersey

to Ephrata, Pennsylvania,

a retreat house to assisted living.

I just walked down to the water

to say, “Good bye – I haven’t

appreciated you in the 3 years

I was stationed here.

Sorry."

Will this remind me to feel the

missing and appreciate the next?

 

© Reflections, Andy Costello