Poetry of Life Series - A Simple Prayer from the Heart

A Simple Prayer from the Heart
By Todd Royce Gubler
Composed 12/31/03

Ready to learn Lord, here now I sit
Willing to see Thee, as Thou seest fit
Teach me a lesson with each moment’s gift
Help my heart reach Thee, I need a slight lift
Thy loving mercy, hast set my heart free
Teach me now kind Lord, to return to Thee
Ready to learn Lord, ready to now do
Whatever it takest, to return to You.

Poetry of Life Series - Afraid of the Dark

Afraid of the Dark
By Todd Royce Gubler
Written 12/31/03
Ending revised 8/28/05

Sometimes, afraid, I lie awake and stare
Praying to God, hoping He’s still there
Troubled by sadness and mistakes of the past
Wondering how long this misery must last
I lie there and I wonder and I try to sleep
Begging for mercy, the depression so deep
I hope and I wonder what life will bring next
Worried so dearly about life’s current bad text
When will a new chapter, close out the old?
When will the story completed, be ready to be told?
I lie and I worry, completely robbed of my rest
Why am I so sad, why others are so, so blessed
The answer evades me, I guess I have lessons yet to learn
But oh the sting of sadness, sometimes it really, really burns
And then the dawn begins to break, the nights torrent now must close
The sun it seems my fears to ease, a better day maybe, who knows

Chapter 2 - Part 3 - The North Rose Garden

As we entered through the North arch of this hedge, we found a spectacular garden. Here the path split to run up each side of a large raised planter. The planter was raised about 2 feet above the path and had a finely crafted granite ledge just large enough to sit on all the way around it. I could tell at once that this was once a very formal rose garden. It was obvious that great attention and preparation had gone into this area as the soil was highly amended and the entire area had a very formal overtone. Unfortunately the entire planter was full of weeds and grasses, now flourishing in the well prepared and rich soil. Most of the roses were dead and old branches of thorns cluttered the area. A rose had managed to survive here and there and a couple had even thrived but the entire look was far from congruent with the original formal plan. This planter was about 10 feet wide and stretched north at least 500 feet. “Why did I make this bed so large?” I questioned out loud. The spirit shrugged and smiled and whispered, “One can never have too many roses!”

How true I thought. “This must be cleaned and prepared so that there will always be room when I find a rare or beautiful rose. Let us continue our tour for now though,” I said. We walked along the rose bed, stopping occasionally to admire a bloom that had managed to survive amidst the neglect.

Now this stately rose bed was flanked on each side by what appeared to be a country style garden. Large groupings of Iris, Gladiolus, Amaryllis, Daffodils, and Hyacinths bloomed profusely here. They had propagated and thrived and taken over and their beauty was a welcome addition to the otherwise weedy and un-kept North Garden. The bulbs were backed by a back drop of 4-foot tall mounds of green ewe followed by a neatly spaced row of stately and tall Italian cypress. This gave the North Garden long formal site lines that was very impressive and formal looking. If the rose bed hadn’t been such a mess the area would have been quite grand. We finally reached the end of the long rose bed and found a large semi-circular terrace area with a trellis supported by formal grecian style columns. From this terrace you could see out over a great valley. This was quite an elevated place and the hill below was gracefully terraced down to the banks of a placid lake. The pillars were set with 2 pillars close then a space of about 10 feet and then another set and so forth around the edge of the semi circle. Each opening seemed to perfectly frame a different picture of the surrounding countryside. It was a grand, grand place. I noticed that thee vines that were gracefully trained around the pillars and up on the trellis above were mostly dead. They appeared to have been wisteria. I thought, “What a shame they are all dead.” The Spirit then pointed out a small green bud on one of them. I smiled because I knew that there was now hope and that with care maybe some of the ancient plants could be revived. We stayed in this place and viewed the surrounding landscape for quite some time.

Chapter 2 - Part 2 - The Heart of the Garden

The main path led into the garden straight ahead for a bit and then came to a circle. In the center of this circle was a circular flowerbed with an old bronze fountain in the center. The fountain was still flowing but just barely. The algae hung off the sculpture in long gross strings, strangling any cascade of water and masking the fountains appearance. The pool at the base of the sculpture had a soupy green consistency and smelled of rot and stagnation. The question was posed, “What shall we do here?” I replied, “Let me stop here and fix this before we proceed so the sound may bring joy to the rest of the garden.” I quickly found a bucket and drained the stagnant water from the fountain. I looked around for a place to refresh the fountain and clean it with fresh water. I found an old fashioned hand pump tucked into the landscape nearby. After pumping out some old rusty water that had sat in the pipes way too long, the pump gurgled and spat and then gushed forth pure clean water. In fact as I filled and refilled the bucket I found the purity of the well water quite remarkable. I carefully cleaned and scrubbed the fountain removing all the debris and slime. It was a stunning bronze sculpture of three graceful swans, wings arched back and heads positioned in such a way that they all aimed their water spouts directly up. Balanced on the outstretched wings of these graceful swans was an innocent child standing in a sort of ballet type stance reaching joyfully toward heaven seemingly caught in a moment of sheer joy. I thought how amazing this fountain must look when functioning properly, the child in complete harmony with the swans as he seemed to dance in their spray, water raining down around him. Now with the sculpture exposed and cleaned I felt anxious to fill the fountain and see it in proper operation. I pumped many buckets of pure clear water from the well and once I had filled the fountain to a proper level the pump gurgled a couple times and almost instantaneously the fountain exploded back to life. The sound of the cascading water seemed to sing out through the garden, echoing out across the whole valley. The weak flow I had found was now a mighty fountain, alive with joy and life and sound. “Much better,” the Spirit whispered, “Let us now venture further into your garden.”

At the fountain the garden path circled around and had four distinct paths heading in each of the directions of the compass, North, South, East, and West. We had just come from the South, where the garden gate and the shady lane were. We continued around the heart of the garden, the Fountain, and walked toward the North path about 20 feet or so. There were enormous hedges surrounding the Center, Heart Garden and Fountain with large arches carved out at each of the four paths.