*THE MUSINGS AND VERSE OF JOHN P. HOOPER AND OTHERS*
Pix and sound open very slowly. "Just a closer walk with Thee"


* THIS IS ONE OF PATTY'S GARDENS *


*PATTY'S REDBUD TREE*

"Oh little gardener, do you love me"?
Softly whispered the Redbud tree
Trees don't whisper, you'll say to me
But I'm not so sure about the Redbud tree.

"Of course I love you, don't you see
God made us both, I'm akin to thee"
While you may doubt, that this could be
"I, too, have heard the redbud tree."


It's strange what you can hear in a garden
if you really listen.......maybe even God?.......JH
*  NEW ENGLAND ASTERS *

Let's be practical...
after August when the phlox have faded
and the shasta daises lie in tatters
what remains...

if not these tall ubiquitous first cousins
near the fence?

All summer
I forgot about them in their drab
ambiguous green
Like neighbors on vacation,

but yesterday
I thought I saw them coming, yesterday
I sensed a certain coolness
from the coast

and here they are
this one pink and rosy, this one
crimson and effulgent
with a yellow eye,

Alma Potschke and September Ruby
spilling through the yard
in early morning,

wild, yes, but punctual...
all the way from Massachusetts.

                                       By a real poet, my daughter

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