Green Pastures - Never Alone

 

Paul wrote, "I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present or the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 8:38-39

"The Phantom Horsewoman" by Thomas Hardy

 

The Phantom Horsewoman. by Thomas Hardy

Queer are the ways of a man I know:
He comes and stands
In a careworn craze,
And looks at the sands
And in the seaward haze
With moveless hands
And face and gaze,
Then turns to go...
And what does he see when he gazes so?

They say he sees as an instant thing
More clear than today,
A sweet soft scene
That once was in play
By that briny green;
Yes, notes alway
Warm, real, and keen,
What his back years bring-
A phantom of his own figuring.

Of this vision of his they might say more:
Not only there
Does he see this sight,
But everywhere
In his brain-day, night,
As if on the air
It were drawn rose bright-
Yea, far from that shore
Does he carry this vision of heretofore:

A ghost-girl-rider. And though, toil-tried,
He withers daily,
Time touches her not,
But she still rides gaily
In his rapt thought
On that shagged and shaly
Atlantic spot,
And as when first eyed
Draws rein and sings to the swing of the tide.

Cumberland Ents Protector of Wild Horses

 

The horses feed on the grass under the protective shade of the Cumberland Ents.  These ancient trees spread their branches in a protective guard around the horses.  They help to shield them from rain and heavy winds and provide shade from the hot sun that beats down on the island.  These horses roam the island freely and they get the right of way to the island and tourist do not get in their way.  Particularly, when there is a herd stampeding down the dirt roads.  You will move out of their way! Where in Middle Earth do horses rule the land and are allowed to run free? 

Island of Wagon Wheels & Horse Pulled Carriages

 

Mackinac Island is a very unique place to visit if you want to get away from cars and motor vehicles and traffic noise.  If you want to see what it is like using horse and buggies for traveling around town, then this is the place to visit.  Everything and everyone is transported by horses, carriages, and wagons including the trash pickup and taxi services. Of course you can always walk or ride bikes. The streets can smell from all the horse traffic so clean up after the horses is also important. I cannot even imagine what the stench was like in a large city like New York or London in horse and carriage days.

Summerland Pastoral Fields - John Milton's "Lycidas"

 

  few photos of Summerland Park on the North Inlet Trail to Cascade Falls; I particular like seeing the horses grazing in the pasture. I don't have the language skills to write a pastoral elegy like John Milton.

I never hear anything about the work of the poet "John Milton" except in a University English classroom.  His writing style is of a highly educated man and far more sophisticated and elegant then writers today. He had a command of the English language and knew how to use words like a painter uses brush strokes to produce a brilliant effect.  Lycidas is a pastoral elegy which is why I thought about John Milton with the pastoral scene at Summerland Park.

Several verses from John Milton's "Lycidas" to stir the imagination:

"Thee Shepherd, thee the Woods, and desert Caves,
With wilde Thyme and the gadding Vine o'regrown,
And all their echoes mourn.
The Willows, and the Hazle Copses green,
Shall now no more be seen,
Fanning their joyous Leaves to thy soft layes.
As killing as the Canker to the Rose,
Or Taint-worm to the weanling Herds that graze,
Or Frost to Flowers, that their gay wardrop wear,
When first the White thorn blows;
Such, Lycidas, thy loss to Shepherds ear."

John Milton (Bewails a  friend, who drowned in his Passage
from Chester on the Irish Seas, 1637.)