An inkstand and dip pens await
Her thoughts and careful hands.
Her words -- birds' footprints scattered down--
Form verse and news to friends.

A slender table -- straight-back chair --
Is all that she requires.
The simple tools that she employs
Enhance life, birds and flowers.

A leather-bound herbarium
Close by and open wide
Displays a vast collage of blooms
Pressed skillfully inside.

One pencil rests across the top
Of paper stark and white
And on her bed are reams of poems
Tied up -- to hide from sight.

The earth has not discovered yet
The genius of this Child
Of Nature, Light and Solitude
Who celebrates the world.

-- Marilyn Marsh Noll