… 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.
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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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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!
Filed under: birds and chickens, Do the Work, gardens and flowers, haiku, life around us, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, taking time to look, the creative process | Tagged: birds, dothework, flowers, garden, haiku, In the neighborhood, NaPoWriMo, poem, poetry, process, TakingTimetoLook | Leave a comment »
Ventured out to see Mom, get sunflower seed for the birdies, get katfüd for the kitties and have some dinner. Amazing the changes in the world in a week plus. Although it was quite nippy today, sp many flowers and trees in bloom!
closed my eyes briefly
now the hills are fringed in white
lacy wild cherriesmagnolia and
weeping almond and cherry
line my mother’s streetin my own garden
the first of the daffodils
are fading
Filed under: covid19, deadline, Do the Work, family and friends, gardens and flowers, haiku, In the neighborhood, landscape, life around us, NaPoWriMo, Poetry and Lyrics, taking time to look, weather | Tagged: dothework, flowers, garden, haiku, NaPoWriMo, poem, poetry, process, seasons, spring | Leave a comment »
I sat outside even though it wasn’t particularly sunny this afternoon. The daffodil season is short in the scheme of things.
sitting with daffodils
no words from either of us
I painted, they glowed.eventually
drops of rain fell on my work
all yellow washes
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, weather | Tagged: daffodils, dothework, garden, haiku, mailbox, NaPoWriMo, pleinair, pleinairpainting, poem, poetry, process, watercolor, watercolorpainting, weather | Leave a comment »
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