Morning at Dawn

Darkness covers the fields;
A chill fills the spring air.
Without the sun’s life-giving light,
The pastures of green are hidden from sight.

A persistent breeze breaks the pre-dawn silence,
And the grasses waver in the wind
As though massive waves in a sea.
Back and forth the grasses bend as the dawn light appears.

Dark clouds form from the south
As the coming of the morning sun is marked.
The menacing maelstrom quickly moves
With thunder and lightning and wind now howling.

All grows dark as the clouds extinguish all light,
And the threatening skies, now black, open up.
The rain pours down at a quickening pace,
And the deluge begins, showing no end.

Amid the maelstrom is a lone tree,
Resting high atop one of the rolling hills.
Its branches, flailing amid the wind and rain,
Act as a shelter from the thickening tempest.

Lightning strikes the solitary tree,
Frightening a group of songbirds from their alcove.
Thunder crackles as the tree is struck,
But amid the downpour the wood fails to ignite.

As quickly as the thunderstorm arrives,
Its remnants race away to the north, now at a distance.
The quiet of morning returns again,
And light from the morning sun shines brightly.

To the east the orange light casts a glow
On the peaceful pasture with quiet serenity.
So too the songbirds return to their tree;
Their chirps intermingle with the subsiding flow of rainwater.

The sweet symphony of nature’s harmony,
The birds’ chirping songs of morning
And the peaceful gushing of life-giving rain,
Pay tribute to the intricate beauty of God’s creation:
This beginning of a life-giving and blessed day.