from Sharon Samoska, Waterbury, Connecticut, "Out in the Fields with God"

 Out in the Fields with God*

The little cares that fretted me
I lost them yesterday,
Among the fields above the sea,
Among the winds at play,
Among the lowing of the herds,
The rustling of the trees, 
Among the singing of the birds, 
The humming of the bees.

The foolish fears of what might happen,
I cast them all away
Among the clover-scented grass, 
Among the new-mown hay
Among the husking of the corn,
Where drowsy poppies nod
Where ill thoughts die and good are born--
Out in the fields with God.

*attributed to Louise Imogene Guiney in Leaves of Gold, tenth printing June 1944,  Coslett Publishing Co.  Honesdale, PA.  Other sources assign authorship to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, including  The Golden Treasury of Poetry. edited by Louis Untermeyer,

Sharon's personal reflection:

 My favorite summer poem is one I memorized when I was in fourth grade and it remains entrenched in my memory.  It gave me a sense of freedom, peace, calm, joy and has become a connection with my father as he was a farmer and though I never quite understood all that as a child, I see so much more now.  I have used this poem to share with Sunday School children in my classes in the past to introduce the scents of, the sounds of, the touch and feel of summer.  I hear the rustling of the hay, the sun dancing on the tips of the leaves, the feeling of the gentle breeze on my face, I see the infant rabbit, the barn swallows,  the chorus of the birds... For those precious moments I am somewhere else, blanketed by God's creation--the truth that this is a place where good thoughts come to us and God reminds us there is more good that so often is obscured by the things of life...