Opal Whiteley

“I wonder if honeysuckles grow about the gates of heaven. I’ve heard they are made of precious jewels. I have thinks there will be flowers growing all about. Probably God brought the seed from heaven when he did plant the flowers here on earth. Too, I do think when angels bring babies from heaven to folks that live here below, they do also bring seeds of flowers, and do scatter them about. I have thinks that they do this so the babies may hear the voices of the loving flowers, and grow in the way of God.”
― Opal Whiteley, The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow

“In Man's heart is a little room.
He has named it
Oblivion.
And things are ranged along its walls
That he does not wish
To think about.
Every time that he pushes something in there,
He closes the door very tightly.

But in hours when he is weary,
In the hours that walk around some midnights,
When high fires have burned
To a low flicker,
Then the little door swings on its hinges
And no thing
Will make it stay closed
All of the time.

When he is near death,
All the velvet-footed wanderers in there
Join the throng around his bed.
"We will not die," they whisper
To one another,
While Beauty waits with drawn lips,
And dry eyes.

But there is heard
The patter of a little sad rain
In her heart's garden,
Where some little flower buds
That were once thinking of the sun
Will never open,
Because Man keeps a little room
Of oblivion in his soul.”
― Opal Whiteley