she is: FEATHERS ON THE WIND ©1981

Feathers On The Wind
(a family anthology)

Webs of reveré

Hold back cold realities

Spiders spin our nights

* Dawn E. Rutter

Peace My Child
The church as quiet, cool and dim,

I entered seeking help from Him.

I never thought of what I’d give,

Just how He’d help me now to live.

No gift had I, no thought to offer,

Barren as I thought my coffer,

Then as I knelt below the altar

Begging words began to falter

Suddenly I hear my voice

Offer myself, a lowly choice.

God whispered in a gentle voice,

‘Peace, my child, we both rejoice.’

* Dawn E. Rutter
Feathers on the Wind ©1981

My Book

A stranger asked to buy my book,
I sold it while my fingers shook,
I thought that only friends would look ---
Until a stranger bought my book.

* Dawn E. Rutter
Feathers on the Wind ©1981

Scented Pages

Like the petals fallen from the rose

Drop the words of poetry and prose

Leaving scented pages from the past

So new eyes can see at last.

* Dawn E. Rutter
Feathers on the Wind ©1981

Unable to speak your language

we share the hearth

love speaks silently

                         * Dawn E. Rutter
                              Feathers on the Wind ©1981

Oak leaves lose color
The forest remembers spring
still waiting in snow

* Dawn E. Rutter
Feathers on the Wind ©1981



A Son

My child, heart of my heart,
Loved from the very start,
Cherished all your childhood days
Teaching you for grown-up ways.

Grown to manhood overnight,
Somehow it doesn't seem just right,
That bearded man so tall to see,
Just yesterday was on my knee.

* Dawn E. Rutter
Feathers on the Wind ©1981

God's Winter Scene

Boughs heavy laden with snow,

A white trackless wilderness,

Blanked mist shrouded mountain.

Icicles sap in the cold sun.

Silence broken by ice breaking

On the river, babbling water.

No voice is heard, no creature stirs,

Only wind winnowing snow.

* Dawn E. Rutter
Feathers on the Wind ©1981

Papa

Golden grain emblem
Dangling from his pocket,
My Papa's photo
In my mental locket.

* Dawn E. Rutter
Feathers on the Wind ©1981

Dreams
by Roy W. Charles (Papa)

Thundering o'er the shining trail
Speeds the train of boyhood dreams
Mile on mile of bright steel rail
Fuming smoke and hissing steam.

How I long to board that cab
And pull the throttle wide,
Just give her all the steam she had
And ride and ride and ride.

Thru sunny fields and shady woods,
Or thundering o'er a trestle
Shrilly whistling thru suburbs
Where dingy stations nestle.

A-flying o'er the foot-hills crest,
Then dashing thru weird tunnels,
Oh how those boyhood days were blessed
With imaginative rumbles.

Oh how I used to throb and sway
And mimic mental creations,
As I walked the golden highway
In the land of imaginations.

**Roy W. Charles

[Dawn E. Rutter’s Father]

(Untitled)

by Roy W. Charles

When worry and troubles burden your mind

And poverty causes neglect

The metals you're made of show up fine,

Take care of your self-respect.

For he who is worried with burdens of care

Finds fault and is often unkind.

But a man who adds nothing for others to bare,

Is a man among men in my mind.

**Roy W. Charles

The Lady Slipper

by Roy W. Charles

In dune-land woods along trail two,

In damp beds of leaf mold

A flower of rarest beauty grew

Amid the aspens fold.

Inflated lip of yellow

Twisted sepals of deep brown,

Dark oval sheathing leaves

On stems straight and round.

No flower more attractive grew

Or quicker caught the eye.

The image of a little shoe

With ribbons for a tie.

No floral family gets the fame

Nor other orchids wild

As the dainty lady-slipper

For its individual style.

** Roy W. Charles

Feathers on the Wind ©1981

The Brook
by Roy W. Charles

Down thru the whispering rushes
On thru the aspens gray,
I sparkle across the sand bars,
I darken o'er beds of clay.

Joyous I list' to the rushes
I understand all they say.
But ever I travel onward,
Others may need me today.

Oft I would like to tarry
In the shade of the sycamore
And play with the shadow fairy
That thinks I'm a dancing floor.

Down in the valley the lily
Calls me and calls not in vain,
Onward I rush with my freshness
Freshness of far off rain.

On thru the valley I travel
Dancing thru sun and shade,
A joy to all that surrounds me
By giving of what I am made.

**Roy W. Charles

HAIKU

by Anne C. Rosebrock

[Dawn E. Rutter's Mother]

A cathedral not

only a thing of joy but

a shout of triumph

The hummingbird flits

across the honeysuckle

sipping on the wing

The weeping willow

arched over the flowing stream

to see its image

The water cascades

from the rugged mountain side

to a quiet pool

The church bell ringing

each not floating through the air

like a sliver globe

**Anne C. Rosebrock

Cardinal

Cardinal with plumes so red

A rakish topknot on your head,

Scarlet flashing through the trees,

A feather floated on the breeze.

I went and picked the feather up

And put it in my pencil cup.

Now when I go to write a bit

My room with scarlet feather's lit.

** Dawn E. Rutter

He Read My Poems

He read my poems

And shed his tears.

It washed away

My somber fears ---

That what I wrote

Was not worth while,

For he enjoyed

The words and style.

**Dawn E. Rutter