#NewThisDay Writing From My Photo Stream

Christmas Palm, Martinique

“Adonidia is a genus of flowering plants in the Arecaceae family.
It is commonly known as the “Christmas Palm” because its fruits become bright scarlet and tend to be that color in winter. ”

— Wikipedia

It's Sunday morning, and I am walking in the hills of Le François, in Martinique, appreciating the dog, whose name and owner I don't know, who happily follows me part of the way. Also, the hot sun, the warm breeze, the long views of the farm land and closeups of palms and the bananas growing all along the road, the paper thin pink and white petals of the bougainvillea and the shade of the tunnel through rocks as I walk the steep hill back up to my friend's villa.

Tonight, I appreciate this poem about the keeping the Sabbath by going outdoors by Emily Dickinson on the Poetry Foundation website.

“Some keep the Sabbath going to Church – (236)

Some keep the Sabbath going to Church –
I keep it, staying at Home –
With a Bobolink for a Chorister –
And an Orchard, for a Dome –

Some keep the Sabbath in Surplice –
I, just wear my Wings –
And instead of tolling the Bell, for Church,
Our little Sexton – sings.

God preaches, a noted Clergyman –
And the sermon is never long,
So instead of getting to Heaven, at last –
I’m going, all along.”

— Emily Dickinson, "Some keep the Sabbath going to church" from (02138: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, ) Source: The Poems of Emily Dickinson Edited by R. W. Franklin (Harvard University Press, 1999)

All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar 2018 unless otherwise attributed.