Tag: Nature

August 16

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Impatiens glandulifera

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Tall plants with pink bloom sway in traffic breeze

As they colonize wet roadside ditches

Seem to fill ecological niches

A couple months before nature’s deep freeze.

After a quick u-turn to stop the car

To get a closer look at petal count and amount

I remain clueless as to what they are.

With digital pics we’re back on our way

He drives I dive in to field guide and keys

Eager to know this late summer display.

I expected to find the name with ease

But my assumptions led me stray

Fooled by sheer numbers and presence of bees.

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(A Byron’s Sonnet)

August 15

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Fallen Fungus

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Oh dear the mushroom has been uprooted

Some careless walking has it uprooted

It sure looks like it’s been hiking-booted

The soft pine needle ground buffered its fall

It’s squat, short and stout with not far to fall

Do you think the person noticed it at all?

Amazingly for this organism

This is not death for this organism

Regardless of our own barbarism

Miles of mycelium supporting

Acres of hyphae supporting

Nearly immune to human cavorting

Mushrooms will thrive long after we are gone

As extinct as the great mastodon

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(A Blues Sonnet)

July 31

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Stoneleigh

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A large gray mansion built of Wissahickon schist

With 45 rooms embellished in wood grain

Is more impressive when the details aren’t missed.

Easy to be distracted by size insane

In the small details the real wonder exists

The charm of stone flowers is hard to explain

The home’s grandeur is the point some may insist

It’s these small stone blooms that keep it from mundane

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(A Sicilian Octave Poem)

July 30

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Daucus carota

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What is the spot in the middle

Of the delicate Queen Anne’s Lace?

Surrounded by snowy white blooms

It certainly seems out of place.

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They say Queen Anne was making lace

And tatting the designs by hand

When the needle caught her finger

A stain on the lace did expand

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Now the flowers cover the land

Thriving in forgotten places

Far from what people call nature

Despite the life in these spaces

*

From afar all you see is white

Flowers waving across the field

It’s not until you get up close

That the colorful is revealed

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(A Redondilla Poem)

(A Serventesio Poem)

July 29

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Intricacies

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The beauty of lichens up close

As lovely as a coral reef

Tightly bound and crust-like – crustose

Diversity beyond belief

Pebble-like, clustered – squamulose

No need for SCUBA and debrief

The beauty of lichens up close

As lovely as a coral reef

*

Flat sheets and leaf-like – foliose

Closely explored in disbelief

Free-standing, branching – fruticose

A terra-firma reef motif

The beauty of lichens up close

As lovely as a coral reef

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(A Rondel Prime Poem)

July 28

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Second Life

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I can imagine

The gentle clatter

This leaf made when it

Tumbled to the ground

Brown paper bag stiff

The softest of sound

Tapping the gravel

Becoming earthbound

*

The softening starts

Rain penetrating

Intricate patterns

Of complex leaf parts

Wearing down that which

Is root counterpart

Though the leaf is downed

New life it has found

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(An Octameter Poem)

July 18

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Natural Art

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As intricate as the patterns on a quilt

Subtle color, fine beauty beyond belief

Like an old stained glass window complete with gilt

Fascinating as a headdress on a chief

As complicated as the new building built

Textured like mosaic or bas relief

Reflecting sunlight like a jewelry box spilt

How can anyone think this is just a leaf?

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(An Italian Octave)

July 9

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Splitting Thoughts

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Here the dark dead cells of the tree are the strongest

It is no coincidence it is called heartwood

Tough while the softness around it is peeled apart

Many times the heartwood does not last the longest

Silently rotting leaving a void where strength once stood

Invisibly weakened by life, so goes the heart

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(An Italian Sestet)

July 10, 2018

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Religion

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Marbled sunset is my stained glass

I have faith in the sassafras

my parish is the biomass

*

to the orthodoxy of nature I am beholden

humbled by the buzzing bee in the sunflower golden

the feisty spirit of the small chipmunk does embolden

*

Eternity I find

in rocky shore line

and how stars align

*

Nature’s dogma guides

her rules I abide

through each moon and tide

*

Scripture in leaf veins

bright bird song ordains

cathedral in rains

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(A Christ-in-a-rhyme Poem)