… can geranium season be far off? Yup Martha Washington geraniums in the house!
was going to start a larger painting – sketched it in loosely even, but I decided to do a quick sketchbook paint as a warm up.
Filed under: Do the Work, taking time to look, the creative process, watercolor | Tagged: dothework, flowers, geranium, may, process, watercolor, watercolorpainting | Leave a comment »
It’s hard to let go of National Poetry Writing Month. Last night I was glad to watch an array of people reading a stunning array of poems to close out the month and help raise funds for poetry in the schools and other good causes. Thank you Academy of American Poets for that fine ending to April.
I sat awhile today watching the birds. I finally made a list (see at the end of this) and found I had identified by sight sixteen species of birds in just a couple hours and it was a good thing. Beautiful songs, varying behaviors, coming to the little space where I provide food and water with lots of places for them to hang out safely. I was quite honored by their presence, humbled really. There’s so much good and beauty in the world if we stop and look for it.
The still light of afternoon
shimmering with song, of
so many birds. I weep
for their colors, for knowing
their names, that they come
here to my tiny yard.
Perhaps the clatter of life grinds
but here we are and I am
second coffee to the left
a hedgerow of spent daffodils
separating me from the road
So much today is flying
even the sotto voce clouds
even as they whisper by
Below: Rose-breasted Grosbeak and Baltimore Orioles.
I saw:
Filed under: birds and chickens, clouds, Do the Work, gardens and flowers, life around us, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, sonnet, taking time to look, the creative process | Tagged: birds, dothework, garden, NaPoWriMo, poem, poetry, process, sonnet, TakingTimetoLook | Leave a comment »
Had an appointment with Mom with morning and of course lunch afterwards. Had a quick job to do at her house and then I took the scenic route home. Once home, I got down to figuring out – are all the parts to this old bird feeder here or is it time for this to go away. And of course all the parts were there and they were coaxed back together with a little tinkering and some cable ties. While I sat there pretending I knew what I was doing, so many birds were in the trees around me and indeed – Oriole! Hummingbird! Rose-breasted Grosbeaks! Wren! Song Sparrow! Red Winged Blackbirds! Tree swallows! Woodpeckers!
For my last official act of April
I rounded up all the parts of
a bear-busted bird feeder
and found all the parts were there
A little undoing and redoing with
some cable ties and what dad
would call a lick and a promise
it was back together again.
Then found some new cord
to toss over the limb of
the busy birch tree
was it laughing at me
and while an oriole whistled
from high above, some orange angel
come to survey this busy yard
I rehung it. Needs different hardware
so the knots are iffy
I sat and watched the birds
come two by two and one
keeping a skeptical eye on me
and whatever it was
I thought I was doing.
birds all watching while
birdfeeder’s repaired again
more patient than bears
Filed under: birds and chickens, Do the Work, gardens and flowers, haiku, In the neighborhood, life around us, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics | Tagged: birdfeeder, birds, birdwatching, dothework, haiku, lifearoundus, NaPoWriMo, poem, poetry, process | Leave a comment »
The penultimate day of NaPoWriMo 2024. Couple days ago felt like the month had gone on about a week too long but it passed. And I signed up to be part of an Exquisite Corpse collaborative poem creation (May-June) and performance (July 28) – that will be a stretch and an exciting one!
Today’s prompt took us to a Merriam-Webster ten word list taken from Taylor Swift’s new release, Tortured Poets: clandestine, Machiavellian, incandescent, altruism, sell-effacing, albatross, antithetical, mercurial, elegy, cardigan. Quite the range, that. I pondered it on my ride to see Mom this afternoon, when I suddenly saw a sign that had a five syllable message. I don’t know why I didn’t take a photo. I was driving, all right?
long enough pause here
to compose an elegy
waiting for a signfive cars stacked behind
watching ten cars passing
one lane road ahead
Filed under: cats helpful cats, Do the Work, haiku, kittens, life around us, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, taking time to look, the creative process, words | Tagged: blackcat, Cat, CatsOfMastodon, dothework, elegy, haiku, NaPoWriMo, poems, poetry, process, TaylorSwift, WordXWord | Leave a comment »
I was excited to see the NaPoWriMo suggestion to write a Sijo. Ooooh a new short form to explore. Then I started reading about the structure and how it works and – friends, it’s day twenty-eight. I got nothing like that in me.
I did hear what I believe to be a hummingbird go by today. I was turned away from the garden so I didn’t see it, but if it wasn’t a hummer, I don’t want to meet a bee that loud! I had put my feeders out a few days ago, even though it seemed cool. Today was about seventy though so I can believe they’ve started to return.
how can syllables
explain the unseen wing buzz
of a hummingbirdwaited hopefully
for the first hummingbird
but only rain
Found this at the edge of the garden as I was setting out wintered over plants to catch some rain.
Love this time of year when you can search the ground for things that are coming up and look forward to them getting much larger. I’d planted some bareroot plants last year (sparking a whole extreme poison ivy moment) and thought a few of them didn’t survive at all. But now, there are the three monkshood plants, right where I’d plopped them (and will leave them due to poison ivy roots!). Also the astilbes, hosta and cat mint are coming up along with some day lilies from Mom’s garden and the two primrose that hang on with the help of a chicken wire deer deterrent and a columbine plant that did the same!
Filed under: birds and chickens, Do the Work, gardens and flowers, haiku, In the neighborhood, Poetry and Lyrics, taking time to look, weather | Tagged: dothework, flowers, garden, haiku, hummingbird, NaPoWriMo, poem, poetry, process, seasons, spring, TakingTimetoLook | Leave a comment »
Really? A sonnet? An American sonnet you suggest, NaPoWriMo? I had a day. So here ya go.
Woke up this morning wanting to paint
Wanting to use the vacuum cleaner
Not wanting to think it had been awhile
Made breakfast to let me feel normal
Sat down and painted a landscape
some clouds, some blue sky, some hills
why so pastel hills, I wonder
why is my palette so messy? so of course
I spent time cleaning all the corners
dug out two blues and spread fresh paint
Noting that a couple tubes were almost spent
Of course I went to the art store and
then the grocery store, just to feel normal.
From the Quote Box:
When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. — Harriet Beecher Stowe
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I had good intentions of getting stuff done this morning. But I guess my brain needed to decompress after all the legal-news-watching yesterday so getting up and out didn’t happen. Instead mom and I had an early dinner and then I tried to take us to see Cohoes Falls and failed not once but twice to get into the right lane to stay on 787 to get to Cohoes so we had a lovely tour of downtown Troy and spent a warm few minutes behind the Arts Center looking at the Hudson.
Then I came home and celebrated TGIF. These two haiku went out on a postcard as part of a yearlong poetry exchange.
Never a postmark
your words come to me again
unsulliedOn the flipside
exotic destination
momentary trip.
Filed under: Do the Work, family and friends, haiku, In the neighborhood, life around us, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, taking time to look, the creative process, watercolor | Tagged: dothework, family, glass, haiku, NaPoWriMo, pleinair, poem, poetry, process, TakingTimetoLook, TGIF, watercolor, wine | Leave a comment »
I think we’re all seeing the finish line in sight. Can’t you imagine the ears pricking a little as the head and eyes come up? Go go go April poets! You can do this!
Today NaPoWriMo.net challenged us to take the Proust Questionnaire (see also here). It had been awhile, so I printed it out (how analogue) so I could look it over in between listening to the SCOTUS oral arguments today. I didn’t get to it until afterwards, but maybe it had been simmering overnight. I jotted down a couple quick answers but didn’t see too much coming of it but then the very last question:
What is your motto?
That had a clear answer! From the quilt annals of 2002…
Always be learning.
Practice. Persistence. Beauty.
Always do the work.
Filed under: badass-ness, Do the Work, haiku, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, quilting, RESIST, Ripped from the headlines, the creative process | Tagged: dothework, haiku, NaPoWriMo, news, poem, poetry, proust, quilt, quilting, SCOTUS | Leave a comment »
Lunch with Mom today because Wednesday is Greek Food Day at our Alexis Diner! Then home and the light was nice and it wasn’t too chilly so I sat out and watched the front yard change.
Yellow light slanting
in afternoon across lawn
blue shadows sap greenred wine seems chilly
afternoon shadows deepen
with glints of sunset
Filed under: deadline, Do the Work, en plein air, gardens and flowers, haiku, In the neighborhood, landscape, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, taking time to look, the creative process, watercolor | Tagged: daffodils, dothework, garden, haiku, NaPoWriMo, pleinair, poem, poetry, process, TakingTimetoLook, watercolor | Leave a comment »
I have no idea what prompts were offered today. I messed around with bird feeders (one crook totally fallen apart, one squirrel baffle undone, hummingbird feeders hung albeit early). I transplanted the cheery little tulip ahead of a visit from the propane company. And indeed, he showed up today. Time will tell if the tulip survives.
it’s ok to be silent
to wait for something
to happen by
here is some sunlight
over there one red tulip
in the tree, many birds
it’s ok to be here waiting
being quiet amidst the birds
many clad in brown and gray
but there goes a cardinal
now the coffee is gone
and soon I go too.
And now, obligatory black cats.
Filed under: cats helpful cats, deadline, Do the Work, gardens and flowers, In the neighborhood, life around us, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, taking time to look, the creative process | Tagged: birds, blackcats, dothework, flowers, NaPoWriMo, poem, poetry, process, tulip | Leave a comment »
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