If May is Here…

… 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.

If May is Here…

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 27

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

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 27

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 26

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
unsullied

On the flipside
exotic destination
momentary trip.

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 26

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 24

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 green

red wine seems chilly
afternoon shadows deepen
with glints of sunset

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 24

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 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 4

Had a bit of strong weather go through the area last night in those wee hours. I am sure we would have had more snow on the ground this morning if there had been less rain, sleet and ice. I am grateful no big limbs came down since I guessed 70-80 mph wind gusts but the local weather service reports 60-70 but still – nothing to sneer at in the middle of the night. It really shook the house and all the windows! Mom and I decided to stay put this morning and I got a nap in. This afternoon I sorted out some paint stuff and filled a tiny palette for travel.

wind hammered the house
last night preventing sleep while
close trees sang along

tree boughs scrape against
the edge of the roof, singing
with low vibrato

peppered ice and snow
against the window all night
brief winter reprise

NaPoWriMo 2024 Day 4

The Eve of NaPoWriMo

Yes, we’ve circled back to the end of March, which means tomorrow is April Fools Day and YES National (Global) Poetry Writing Month.

NaPoWriMo headquarters has issued an early bird prompt and it spoke to me.

You can do this. All the days, some of the days, post them publicly or not. It’s all up to you. Just do it!

A Window

Through the window it all came
the many stories of birds
the reminders of wind and
forgiveness of rain or
its sudden brutality.
At night a distant train
called to remember the
railroad men who lay at rest
In season, the peepers,
the crickets, the katydids
In came the sound of owls
calling to each other
as though no one else heard
At times a fox yells
for the sake of yelling
or a lonely cat for the
sake of its wanting.
Come morning and the light
slices in through the blinds.
Comes a night and there’s the
ringing of snow on the glass.
Come another night and
the air can only be perfect
then moving on to rustle
the leaves outside of sleep.

The Eve of NaPoWriMo

2023 Poetry Postcard Fest Thoughts

I started the postcard poetry fest early this year, about a week after receiving my list of addresses. Thirty-one names plus my own in group one (those over-eager, sign-up-right-away people). After a few years of hearing encouragement to start anytime after getting the list, for some reason this year I took it to heart.

In theory, it shouldn’t matter when you start, as long as you finish by the end of August. Originally the fest was all of August and that’s how I did it – one postcard a day with a newly written poem for each. I often started a few days early in hopes that the August first recipient might get it about on the day. No mail on Sundays of course so either two on Saturday or on Monday. I try to send the international cards early to account for long travel times.

This year, I started writing out my cards and off they went, one most days like normal. The only difference is that nothing arrived in my mailbox for days. I gave myself a pep talk, because I often am saying that the festival is all about the writing and sending, and the dailiness and the cards you receive are bonus. I strongly believe that. So I kept writing. Eventually August started and there was facebook chatter about people starting as there often is. Cards started arriving. I was a few weeks ahead though. I wrote some bonus cards. I wrote some response cards. I didn’t worry so much about sending the Sunday cards early because I was so far ahead. I just stuck with the plan of writing every day.

My own August tradition has been to send one card of my own design to everyone on the list – a day thirty-one card. It’s often something to do with my mailbox and mailboxes in general. I started thinking about this, but without the pressure of the end of August looming up close at hand. Got my card ready and now what?

I started hand-writing the cards a few at a time (rather than printing out the back with the same poem(s) to all), looking at what I’d received from people and writing a note and a response if I could. If not I chose from a handful of haiku I’d written for this. And so I finished a little before the end of the month and in the full swing of things, and feeling pretty good about it.

I think in the future I’ll stick with my normal timeline of starting just a day or two before August first. I was surprised that I missed the sense that I was one of a mass of people writing and sending poems. That mattered more to me than I’d known. And I’ll continue on keeping track of cards received so I can easily look to see what someone has sent me, in case there is a poetic response to be sent. Even if nothing pops up, it’s still nice to re-read at the time of writing and send thanks and acknowledgement.

So thank you Group One and all my bonus card friends!

my postcard to you
was magically changed to yours
by the mailman

2023 Poetry Postcard Fest Thoughts