To A Butterfly

I've watched you now a full half-hour,
Self-poised upon that yellow flower;
And, little Butterfly, indeed!
I know not if you sleep or feed.
How motionless!--not frozen seas
More motionless! and then
What joy awaits you, when the breeze
Hath found you out among the trees,
And calls you forth again!

This plot of orchard-ground is ours;
My trees they are, my Sister's flowers;
Here rest your wings when they are weary.
Here lodge as in a sanctuary!
Come often to us, fear no wrong;
Sit near us on the bough!
We'll talk of sunshine and of song,
And summer days when we were young;
Sweet childish days that were as long
As twenty days are now.

--William Wordsworth

For his feast day

"Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle
as real strength."--Saint Francis de Sales

Garden in the sky

"Silently, one by one,
in the infinite meadows of heaven,
blossomed the lovely stars,
forget-me-nots of the angels."

--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Friend

A friend is another self,
as though a part of me I put aside,
almost forgotten,
was suddenly recalled.
And, the missing piece replaced,
I am whole once more.

Real

"The friendship that can cease has never been real."

--Saint Jerome

God's Favor

"What a great favor God does to those He places in the company of good people!"

-Saint Teresa of Avila

Friendship

"Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious."

--Saint Thomas Aquinas