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 21

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 cherries

magnolia and
weeping almond and cherry
line my mother’s street

in my own garden
the first of the daffodils
are fading

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 21

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 19

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

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 19

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 17

Sunny and rain. Another April day at the edge of New England. Lately I keep thinking – I enjoy writing haiku, writing in such a small format, trying to snag a moment or an image, but I can’t pretend to be Japanese. Perhaps this is where the idea of American Sentences comes from. I cannot write to satisfy the ancient cultural ideas of a culture that’s not my own. So, bear with me in my haiku/senryu practice.

no cherry blossoms
i am not japanese
daffodil haiku

another day
another two pink lines
more isolation

easy to stay home
a gift of the pandemic
welcome lesson

coffee and take out
chili, spicy and so hot
fragrant car ride home

In other news, I let the two young cats rummage through a laundry bag of laundered toys and balls. This amused them for quite a while and then I heard them move through the house with new jingly noises. I was surprised to find that one of their choices was this big plushy racoon. Only the head is stuffed. This was not just pulled out of the bag, but carried all the way upstairs to the bedroom!

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 17

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 16

Feeling better! Today was Day One of no temperature (with no meds) so this is good!

Beautiful day! This is good too! Went out and sat awhile with the sun and daffodils!

Tomorrow is Haiku Day within Poetry Month, so start your engines! Today’s prompt at NaPoWriMo HQ was to “write a poem in which you closely describe an object or place, and then end with a much more abstract line that doesn’t seemingly have anything to do with that object or place, but which, of course, really does.” This is as close as I could get.

finding the edges
the dark wine smoothly slips round
red meets transparent

no color edges
just whatever’s reflected
lips seal around it

cool sides now warming
edges hard by design
keeping it all in

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 16

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 15

Little bit going on in the world today, but the sun was out and my head was a little clearer so I went out to sit in the sun, with my paint kit!

sitting in the sun
while the world is full of news
and daffodils

three yellow paints
gradually become a
page of daffodils

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 15

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 14

The NaPoWriMo prompt was to write using anaphora, a repeated word or phrase at the beginning of each line of a poem. When I read it ‘don’t forget the rain’ popped into my head and I guess I let it rest there. Been a gray rainy day here in downtown East BeeJeesus and that’s about all there is to report.

don’t forget the rain
don’t forget the rain makes things grow
don’t forget that autumn comes
don’t forget that things dies in season
don’t forget that it gets cold
don’t forget that frost settles in
don’t forget that winter comes
don’t forget that snow covers the garden
don’t forget that everything is waiting
don’t forget that everything is waiting
don’t forget that the world will warm again
don’t forget that spring will come again
don’t forget the rain.

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 14

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 13

Not sure what the prompt was today but my focus was mainly my trusty thermos. It’s not my first thermos. I’ve had several that have travelled to work and even to Wales with me because there’s nothing quite like being able to pause for a hot cuppa. I’ve learned the pleasure of making a thermos when I’m sick and being able to have a hot cup in bed without the tea-making activities. So my thermos is getting its moment of spotlight these days. Worth every penny. It’s not a damn travel mug. It’s a Thermos®. And it keeps things VERY hot. And it turns out you can actually pour without removing the stopper all the way (oh, the things you learn along the way!)

another day sick
another cup of hot tea
cooling

making myself
a thermos of hot tea
for the afternoon

boil up the kettle
thinking of the endless cups
at grandma’s table

And while outside righting and filling the feeders, I noticed some new developments in the front garden.

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 13

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 12

Happy Friday the Twelfth! Very gray and rainy day here which makes the front daffodils look fluorescent out there. I do wonder sometimes about the people who drive by – I hope they bring some happiness to others every April. The bulbs may be here for a very long time.

outside in the rain
this year’s tree buds holding a
single silver drop

wind-scattered raindrops
gravity will make them
fall again

Forty year old bulbs
every year a yellow
wonder – daffodils

If I ever win the lottery, maybe I could spread more daffodil joy!

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the milky way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 12

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 10

Today has been an… interesting… day with a few fucking plot twists. (Please note that I did not say “unexpected” or “surprise” plot twists since by nature, all plot twists are these. It is likely that some do not fall into the descriptive category I chose. So there is that.)

When I went to check the optional NaPoWriMo prompt this turned up on the page of possible inspiration points so I just went with it. More regularly scheduled haiku below the photo.

when I was younger
swearing was forbidden
now it saves lives

sun, wind, rain and clouds
passing through the front yard today
kissing daffodils

head rests on table
not so uncomfortable
as necessary

though not Japanese
i write in haiku format
unabashedly

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 10