About the Poem
Beauty, I think, is more readily recognized when you are happy. Why is that, I wonder? Does it perhaps suggest we see beauty as a reflection of the way we see ourselves?
I was happy when I wrote this poem. Buoyant, even. My best friend, Angela, and I had spent most of a weekend touring the California coast by car, playing tag with an ocean breeze along Pacific Coast Highway. We stopped frequently, strolling sandy beaches, climbing treacherous rocks, staring from high vistas into an horizon lost in summer's haze. I felt close to my friend, close to Nature as embodied in a near perfect climate, and very close to my God.
I penned these words near the end of our journey, sitting in quiet silence together atop a grassy prominence five hundred feet above the ocean's edge. For a too brief respite, I saw the entire world as beautiful. And every once in a while, I read again the words I wrote and for a heartbeat am able to recapture that glorious weekend of beauty.
God's Message |
| by Ron Carnell |
| You can hear the message in laughter, It's there in the ocean's soft beat, It's part of the rainbow that's after The rains that fall at our feet. It's an echo in the mountains above us, It's a whisper in the desserts below, It's the touch of the people who love us, And the smell of fresh fallen snow. It's a message that's all around us, A message that God extends: Peace to all our brothers, And love to all our friends. |