Bonus Poem: Pay Attention to the Trees

 Pay Attention to the Trees          

 

“In fall, it’s Halloween. So if you want to get candy, pay attention to the trees.” 

                      -Naomi Cassidy

  

It’s good to pay attention to the trees,

And if you have, I think you will agree!

 

In winter, snow on evergreens is cool,

And trees all greet me on my walks to school; 

Look up in spring, and you’ll have great delight

To see a hint of green so very light;

Then, in the summer, when it’s very hot,

They tell you where there’s shade—and where there’s not!

In fall, to walk through fallen leaves is dandy,

They say that Halloween is near—and candy!

 

For lots of reasons, even more than these,

It’s good to pay attention to the trees. 

 

Scott L. Barton 

Year A Poems

 

For lectionary poems for Year A, please click on 2023 to the right. 

Then, click on the appropriate month, which tells the month any poem was posted.

Bonus Poem: A French Sense of Purpose

This morning the pastor* prayed, 

 

“Give us a French

[and then corrected herself]

sense of purpose,”

but in my mind, I began to wonder

just what a French sense of purpose might be.

 

“Give us a joie de vivre,

a savoring of every moment of our being,

 

“Let us cry out when we awake, ‘Bon appetite’ 

each morning at the table you set before us,

 

“Keep us bug-eyed in wonder, always with

a je ne sais quoi at the world’s indescribable beauty,

 

“May we try not to see each day

as a déjà vu experience, but delight in all things new,

 

“When things go wrong, may we be less apt to blame 

than to say simply, ‘c’est la vie,’ and move on,

 

“Finally, keep us from the faux pas of forgetting

our Savior’s etiquette of seeing you in all people, 

 

“That we might be your avant-garde in the world around us,

 

“En route to a better life for all, 

 

“With you, who are our rock, and our raison d'être.  Amen.”

 

 

Scott L. Barton 

 

 

*The Rev. Susan Cartmell at Amherst, MA’s South Congregational Church