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Too Soon…

September 22, 2014 By Deanna Piercy 6 Comments

Untitled
photo by Deanna Piercy
I want to paste these first fallen leaves back on the trees
and nudge the sun a bit higher in the sky.
I haven’t had enough suppers of sweet corn on the cob,
my salty fingertips slick with butter.
I never got around to making ice cream with juicy peaches
and the homegrown tomato season is never long enough.
Soon we will wrap our necks in colorful scarves,
fading tans hidden beneath cosy sweaters.
And I will mourn the barefoot days of summer.
by Deanna Piercy

Filed Under: Dee's Life, Featured Posts Tagged With: Autumn, Fall, poetry, summer

Late summer melancholy

September 3, 2014 By Deanna Piercy 8 Comments

Hay bales and late summer sunshine
Photo by Deanna Piercy, taken on my parents’ land

My Facebook feed is full of people all excited about fall. They are sharing pumpkin latte recipes and talking about decorating for Halloween. My Pinterest feed is rife with knitted scarves, hearty soup recipes, and crafts made with fall leaves. I went to visit my parents’ a few days ago and my mom had taken fall decorating to a level rarely seen when temperatures are still frequently in the upper 90s.

I’m happy for everyone who is so eager to embrace their favorite season. Truly, I am. And it’s not that I don’t like fall. Early autumn is quite lovely when the sun begins to lower in the sky and bathes everything in a golden glow. And I do look forward to those first few mildly cool and rainy days because there is little I like better than curling up under a quilt with a steaming cup of tea and a good book and that’s the best weather for it. 

However, there’s something about that first leaf I see flutter to the ground that fills me with sorrow and even a bit of dread because of the coming winter. I do my best to talk myself out of it but the truth is I am a summer girl. I was beginning to think I was alone in this until Melanie, a Facebook friend, shared this poem:
Absolute September
by Mary Jo Salter
How hard it is to take September
straight—not as a harbinger
of something harder.
Merely like suds in the air, cool scent
scrubbed clean of meaning—or innocent
of the cold thing coldly meant.
How hard the heart tugs at the end
of summer, and longs to haul it in
when it flies out of hand
at the prompting of the first mild breeze.
It leaves us by degrees
only, but for one who sees
summer as an absolute,
Pure State of Light and Heat, the height
to which one cannot raise a doubt,
as soon as one leaf’s off the tree
no day following can fall free
of the drift of melancholy.
And that, my friends, sums it up perfectly. 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Autumn, Fall, melancholy, poetry, seasons., summer

The World Is Too Much With Us

April 4, 2011 By Deanna Piercy Leave a Comment

Some poetry is timeless and bears witness to the the fact that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

“The World Is Too Much With Us”
A sonnet by William Wordsworth
The World is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon;
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers;
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. –Great God! I’d rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn,
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea,
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: poetry

A Poem for Sunday night…

April 4, 2011 By Deanna Piercy 2 Comments




Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
—Constantin Cavafy

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: poetry

April Poem #2 and photos from Apple Tree Farm

April 3, 2011 By Deanna Piercy 2 Comments

One Vast Garden
by Sri Ananandamayi Ma
“I find one vast garden spread out all over the universe.
All plants, all human beings, all higher mind bodies
are about in this garden in various ways ,
each has his own uniqueness and beauty.
Their presence and variety give me great delight.
Every one of you adds with his special feature to the glory of the garden.”
And now for a few photos from Apple Tree Farm:
I planted potatoes in those buckets today.
David staining the log siding he’s been putting up.
The blue siding is being replaced with logs 
and the white lattice will be replaced with black iron railings.
Pretty dogwood tree
The first irises to bloom this year
It’s going to look so much better when the siding is replaced.
Country driveway

Blurry but oh, so cute!

Filed Under: Country Living, Dee's Life, Gardening, Pets Tagged With: gardening, kittens, Life on Apple Tree Farm, poetry

April is Poetry Month

April 1, 2011 By Deanna Piercy Leave a Comment

April is Poetry Month and today is absolutely glorious.  Enjoy!

To Spring by William Blake

O thou with dewy locks, who lookest down
Through the clear windows of the morning, turn
Thine angel eyes upon our western isle,
Which in full choir hails thy approach, O Spring!

The hills tell one another, and the listening
Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turn’d
Up to thy bright pavilions: issue forth
And let thy holy feet visit our clime!

Come o’er the eastern hills, and let our winds
Kiss thy perfumèd garments; let us taste
Thy morn and evening breath; scatter thy pearls
Upon our lovesick land that mourns for thee.

O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour
Thy soft kisses on her bosom; and put
Thy golden crown upon her languish’d head,
Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Blake, poetry

Christmas Eve…a poem

December 24, 2009 By Deanna Piercy 2 Comments


Hope, peace, joy and love

I wrote the following poem back in 2003 for my annual Christmas letter. It was inspired by our church’s beautiful, candlelight Christmas Eve services.

Christmas Eve

by
Deanna Piercy

Stars pierce the fabric of the night sky
and steeple lights point the way.
Wrapped snug in velvet and wool
we come in anticipation…
and hope.

Gossamer angels reflect His glory
in windows arched toward heaven.
As music rises like a prayer
we drink in the patina of holiness…
and peace.

Bells ring out, glad carols are sung
of mangers, kings, and shepherds.
With bread and wine, and “thanks be to God!”
we celebrate His gift with humbleness…
and joy.

We share the Light one by one
’til all are lit by His glow.
Voices joined in heavenly peace,
we gaze upon a cross of sacrifice…
and love.

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Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Christmas Eve, church, poetry

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I’m Dee, a Francophile with a hippie heart, trying to create a beautiful life in the country while dreaming of Paris. Click here to read more.

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