by Godfrey J. Ellis — November 2002 A classic Christmas legend I’d always heard: “Naughty boys and girls, get lumps of coal in their stockings.” An idea begins to form, it brews, and hatches! I’ll give Mum lumps of coal, then, reveal love’s true gift! Anticipation already sees the scene: Red-faced Mum gasping! Family laughing! […]
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The Addiction
by Godfrey J. Ellis – October 2002 Not all of my poems are nostalgic memories of childhood. The poem below is a frank (perhaps too frank) perception of my wonderful, talented, and frankly saintly mother who, unfortunately, was addicted. She was not addicted to drink or drug. She was addicted to external praise. My brother […]
James Chapple of Bodmin Gaol
by Godfrey J. Ellis – November 2002 This poem shares my shifting impressions upon visiting the Bodmin Gaol (Jail). There, I experienced an unexpected roller-coaster of conflicting feelings about my distant ancestor, James Chapple. Chest swelling, Button popping, Rightful heir, Spirits high. Entering Bodmin Jail, Gaol – Gee! Old and lofty prison, Bastion, tall and […]
My England – A Patchwork of Greens
by Godfrey J. Ellis – October 2002 This a poem of my impression of England as a land of many shades of green. It is called, “A Patchwork of Green.” It is Merry’s favorite poem. In 2020, she made a quilt based on this poem. Below you can see two views of the quilt, which […]
Reflections on Deity
by Godfrey J. Ellis — Sep 2020 Below is a three-line free-verse poem that I wrote. It’s very short and you have to think about the meaning of each line. I hope it will mean something to you; it means something to me. Heavenly Father… A father …in Heaven! A …“father”!
Mont Saint-Michel
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 16×20 Acrylic 1994 This painting was based on a photo in the Geo magazine [a kind of National Geographic in French]. Godfrey started the picture while we were still floating on the canals of Alsace-Lorraine in the east of France in the summer of 1994. The Geo photo was dramatic […]
The Winding Mountain Path
by Godfrey J. Ellis – acrylic 1994 In early 1993, Merry and I pulled out my old missionary journal from 1972 to 1973 and read it. We caught fire and felt inspired to get back to France somehow. We called Joel Fournier, the stake president in Paris, and asked if he knew of a Church […]
Floating on the Marne-au-Reine
by Godfrey J. Ellis – acrylic 1994 One of the amazing activities that we did with the LeChevallier family was a 4-mile-per-hour cruise along the canals of Alsace-Lorraine in Eastern France. It was magical. This scene was painted on-site at one of the many stops along the canal. We left the painting in France – […]
Herding Horses
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 15×30 acrylic 1990 A National Geographic Magazine in 1990 contained this 1-inch by 4-inch photo. Merry and I fell in love with it, but it was tiny, tiny. How could we have a frameable copy? Enlarging it just blurred and pixelated it. I decided that the only way we could […]
The Wandering Dogwood
by Godfrey J. Ellis – 1992 This painting was a wedding gift for my sister, Wendy and her new husband, David Black. It was a total experiment. The “mat” is part of the painting, not a real mat. That allowed the painting of several leaves to extend beyond the painting into the mat area. It […]