There’s something really satisfying about going out in the backyard on a quiet Tuesday morning and picking the last of the blueberries on our bushes, then folding them into a pie crust I made my very own self, filling the house up with pie-baking smells, and enjoying cocoa and a slice of blueberry pie as the leaves turn autumn-gold outside my window. Run-on sentence, but I ain’t apologizing.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
frost on the ground and
fire dances in the wood stove
the calico sleeps
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Colors of amber and ruby and gold
a candle alight on the wood stove
a blueberry-apple maple syrup pie
still toasty from the oven fills my
home with cozy smells of autumn
“Good Omens” on the television
soothing British accents in my ears
Gaiman’s irreverence for evil makes
me laugh at my fears. Cup of cocoa
sweetened with brown sugar is warm
in my hands while outside the rain
cools and refreshes the land.
-Karen Molenaar Terrell
Gusting and pelting rain outside
and leaves of red and yellow
and orange are dancing
through the air like party confetti
and inside I’m cozy with a fire
in the woodstove and Earl Grey
tea beside me. I am content.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
It’s a miracle of perfection.
I am warm and fed and I can hear
my loved one tapping the keys on his laptop
and clearing his throat
near me
I have chamomile tea with cream and a chunk of
sourdough bread and the wind is moving
the rain-splattered screen on the window
and making the lights behind it look like they’re dancing
I feel no pain or fear
I know I’m completely safe
and I imagine coming through some terrible danger
and finding myself in this room
and what a miracle that would seem to be
and how much I’d appreciate the simple unremarkable
perfection of it
and I am filled with gratitude.
– Karen Molenaar Terrell
(excerpt from A Poem Lives on My Windowsill)
Adventures of the Madcap Christian Scientist 