Beautiful Things

Beautiful things are those that make you catch your breath in wonder

Beautiful things are those that make you mourn that they are fleeting

Beauty is when the sun shines through the clouds and you can see it touch the earth,

Or when the sunlight gilds the trees, so that they glow in the summer heat

Beauty is when the mist comes to rise up off the ocean,

And the fog descends to shroud it in wispy bits of dreams

Beauty is when the wildflowers make rainbows on the hills,

When a stream slips through the shadowed vales like a gleaming silver snake

Beauty is the cardinal, red against the fallen snow,

And the cobalt of the mountains far away

Beauty is the first frost that glitters on the trees

That stand black against the winter morning sky

Beauty is the candy-colored sky of early spring,

The lightning bugs in June, little stars upon the earth

Beauty is a river that reaches to the sea

And beauty is soft rain above the hilltops

Beauty is the color of the final rose in fall,

Of the violet nestled deep among the clover

And beauty is a seashell that washed up on the beach

And an apple turning red, high in its tree

Beauty is a little pond that's hidden in the forest

And the wind making patterns in the sand

Beauty is the feeling of the last few days of summer,

And the icy breath of winter's coldest nights

Beauty is when you find the words that express the sudden feeling

That comes for but a moment when you see a beautiful thing

Beautiful things are those that make you want to walk the distance,

To find another masterpiece painted by the divine hand.