May First, 2024

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:

• Ruby-throated hummingbirds
• Red-bellied woodpecker
• Downy woodpecker
• Blue jay
• Black-capped chickadee
• Tufted titmouse
• White-breasted nuthatch
• Gray catbird
• American robin
• House finch
• White-crowned sparrow
• Baltimore orioles
• Red-winged blackbird
• Common grackle
• Northern cardinal
• Rose-breasted grosbeak

May First, 2024

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 30 FIN

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

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 30 FIN

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 28

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 hummingbird

waited 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!

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 28

NaPoWriMo 2024 day 22

As I went to fill a bird feeder today, the cardinals really giving me the what-for, I wondered how much propane I had left. There I found a surprise and gauges that said about 35 whatever, so plenty to get me to the next fill.

around the corner

behind the house shadow a

Single red tulip

out in the front yard

the cardinal calls to me —

Fill the feeders now!

NaPoWriMo 2024 day 22

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 5

Today NaPoWriMo.net offered a lovely poem and idea as a prompt. Isn’t it better to see the tiny good things than to not see them or worse to never see them?

How lucky I am to be able
to fill the bird feeders
while the chickadees and cardinals
whistle waiting in the shrubs.
Today I thought – how lucky
despite doing pretty menial work
I am able to stay home now
“retired” so I can paint
and spend time with my mother
I can fill the pantry and
enjoy some snacks and go out
to enjoy the clouds.
Maybe each day, I’ll
catch some words
lured by hot coffee or wine.
To every life may come some joy
small moments not always shiny
and if I’m lucky enough
I’ll get another chance
to know how each day
can be a blessing.

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 5

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 8

So far so good on painting every day of NaPoWriMo. I’m trying hard to use big brushes and not get caught up in the minutiae. You can’t paint tiny petals when you’re using a big quill brush.

cold sunny April
tempting to turn the heat off
history says no

making chair cushions
juggling numbers and math
measure twice, cut, sew

Sit out in the yard
after dinner golden hour
chickadees scold me.

low gardening stool
better than the cold ground but
now other things ache

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day 8

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day Two

Had hoped to go out and paint but it is just a bit too nippy for that. Wandered around the yard looking at the daffodils which are so close to popping out. Lots of little birds and a whole lot of welcome blue sky and sunshine.

white marble sidewalk
criss-crossed with blue shadows
a single junco

shifting shadows
run away from the sun
words I cannot read

sidewalk never moves
shadow restlessly watches
chickadee fly off

NaPoWriMo 2023 Day Two

Day 26 NaPoWriMo 2022

Hey now, I did try to sort out some small brown birds at the feeder, some stripey and some not. I did my Welsh lesson. I started to clean out a palette. I listened to Billy Collins. You know, I did stuff. I checked to see if the new deer deterrent was working (yes). Oh and I found the tag for one of the new cat “beds” and found out it’s a **bolster** and may not be suitable for all pets… ok.

today – didn’t do much
nothing much important
now night rescues me

pillows all arranged
a small stack, a glass of wine
and then it’s lights out

tomorrow – I’ll see
what happens as the day goes
words or watercolors?

Day 26 NaPoWriMo 2022

Day 22 NaPoWriMo 2022

Took the long way home from getting a bag of sunflower seeds today. The birdies seem to have forgiven me already.

Two yellow rivers
Echoing forsythia
Along curvy road

Two yellow rivers
Curving in time to the road
Forsythia time

Two yellow rivers
Bank off the forsythias
Ricochet way home

Two yellow rivers
Jumping bend to match the curves
Forsythia time.

Day 22 NaPoWriMo 2022

Day 12 NaPoWriMo 2022

I took myself out to look at the clouds and hills today. Somedays that’s harder to do than others, so today it took a push. And another push to retrieve the paint stuff all the way from the back seat and to do a small cloud study.

Then it was off to Mom’s eye doctor appointment and I started the paperwork to get my records moved there too. AND I was able to get an appointment in just a couple weeks so I cancelled the eyeglasses-place appointment I’d set up for this week and will opt for getting it all done by an actual doctor. LOL I much prefer this.

Driving home tonight, had had to turn my rearview mirror to night view because of the bright sun setting behind me and was struck by the color change as I started down from the top of Lord Hill in Nassau. This is why I often say I live in the shadow of the Berkshires – it’s a little pocket of weather and shade and light that’s worth watching.

tipped over the hill
now the hills and trees were blue
day already gone

now the eastern clouds
tinged with leftover sunset
fled toward the dawn

at dusk, daffodils
just opened are bright above
last year’s crumbling leaves

Day 12 NaPoWriMo 2022