POETRY HAS charms that have been described through the years by those more eloquent than I, and sometimes the poet can take you lands away, in imagination. Such is this excerpt from "Cold Watercolor" by Wyatt Prunty:

Until the things I watched to measure change,

A rencent stump, raised flower beds, porch steps --

Had disappeared, with the snow still falling

And the gray January light fading,

Fusing the trees and houses in one shade . . .

When 100-degree plus days stretch out from one summer month to the next it takes a leap of faith to remember that the seasons do change in the fullness of time.

WHAT TO THINK of a 10-year old girl who sings with the voice of a mature, powerful soprano? If you have seen and heard Jackie Evancho you must certainly agree she is a prodigy . . . or, to put it less kindly, a freak of nature.

KLTS-TV of Shreveport presented her Sunday night in its "Great Performances" series. Her CD and DVDs are available as premiums in the station's current fund drive.

When singing operatic arias such as Puccini's Mio Bambino Caro and Nessum Dormo in perfectly pronounced Italian, or performing popular classics like When You WIsh Upon a Star, she makes a tremendous impact .

WHETHER she qualifies as a lyric, dramatic or coloratura soprano I'm not qualified to say. But this child has a range that any professional singer might envy.

She sang The Lord's Prayer and other numbers in an outdoor setting at the Ringling Museum of Art (both circus and centuries-old master works) in Sarasota, Fla. The full orchestra that accompanied her and the large audience fazed her not at all.

Through modern electronic magic Jackie and Barbara Streisand were able to sing a duet without being in the same place.

With long blonde curls and blue eyes, this young artist reminded me of Shirley Temple as she appeared in The Little Colonel and other movies in the 1930s.

The TV program that introduced her to a national audience kept me watching even through the pledge breaks, a first for me.

Speaking of singers, did you notice Willie Nelson broadcasting from Missoula, Mont. on a network telecast the other day? Willie opined that people are worried, not about the national debt limit, but about small farmers. A few people have made "most of the money" in recent good times, he asserted.

As one of his legion of fans, I'm glad that Willie has kept enough of his money to hide out in the Montana mountains until Texas' record summer heat fades away.