April is National Poetry Month: 100 Poems to Lift Your Spirits

The third anthology I am going to feature this month is one I purchased a few years ago on a spring break trip to Lake Chelan. This collection was a nice companion on that trip and one I pull out when I need my spirits lifted. When Leslie Pockell edited this collection she organized the poems by Nature, Nonsense,Spirituality, and The Human Connection.  There are old favorites like " To Autumn" by Keats and "Daffodils" by Wordsworth to modern classics such as "Dawn Revisited" by Rita Dove and "Filling Station" by Elizabeth Bishop.

The memory of the poem I am going to share today was not as a poem, but a song. I sang these words in Junior Choir at the United Church in Kellogg as a child. I don't know if I sang it during Eastertime, but the words seem to fit today.

 Maker of Heaven and Earth (All Things Bright and Beautiful)

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.

Each little flower that opens,
Each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colours,
He made their tiny wings.

The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate,
God made them, high or lowly,
And ordered their estate.

The purple-headed mountain,
The river running by,
The sunset, and the morning,
That brightens up the sky;

The cold wind in the winter,
The pleasant summer sun,
The ripe fruits in the garden,
He made them every one.

The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water,
We gather every day;--

He gave us eyes to see them,
And lips that we might tell,
How great is God Almighty,
Who has made all things well. 

by Cecil Frances Alexander