October 26, 2021

My Bedroom Windows Are Never Closed


My bedroom windows are never closed

I won’t miss a moment of nature

Every season full of sights and sounds

My blanket layers always in flux.


Spring brings the early birds’ dawn chorus

April showers and peepers return

Vixens cry for their mates in the dark

My bedroom windows are never closed


Lightning bugs blink against summer screens

Katydids sing from oak tops at night

Cicada buzz loudly fills warm days

I won’t miss a moment of nature


Great horned, barred and screech hoots fill fall nights

Sun rises reveal jewel-toned forest

Southbound Canada geese honk above

Every season full of sights and sounds


Woodpeckers tap winter’s leafless trees

Moon shadows dance from a clear night sky

Woodstove heat meets snowflakes drifting down

My blanket layers always in flux.


A cascade poem

February 21, 2021

Snow Angels


Plastic wrap gaiters secured with twine protect the transition from cotton sweatpants to leather work boots.

A well-tuned rumble shattering the muffled morning as he heads up the hill to my drive.

Snowy morning smell replaced by fumes of gas and oil immediately unearthing memories of my dad.

This vintage machine, made when machines were mostly metal, is piloted by ages of experience and a depth of mechanical knowledge I envy. It displaces snow practically, usefully, purposefully, precisely out of the way so I can move another machine about which I know so little.

“I’ll help you with the heavy snow at the end of the drive” he says while idling. “Thank you so much” I say. “Just being neighborly” he says, the end of the sentiment engulfed by the increasing throttle as he turns, heading back down the hill to home.


The cushioned silence greets me as I open the door. It’s early enough that snowblower rattles and shovel scrapes are not yet replacing Carolina Wren song.

Plodding through inches of snow, I am not yet ready to begin the tasks required to accommodate a normal day’s activities.

Heading to a flat open spot covered deep in snow, I fall backwards without worry, certain this mattress of frozen hexagons will catch me softly, conforming to my curves as much as any memory foam.

Smiling into the blue sky I move my long arms and legs in arcs, uselessly, impractically, for no reason but sensation, for no purpose but pleasure.

January 8, 2020

Liquidambar styraciflua

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Snow boots near spiky fruits

Seeds far from the capsules by now

Dropped in turds spread by birds

Away from the blades of a plow

Just the shell where it fell

After tumbling from a bough

debris under a tree

But still helping with life somehow

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Invented poetic form

Naturette

8 lines with the following rhyme scheme and (syllable count) about small finds in nature.

AA(6)

B (8)

CC (6)

B (8)

DD (6)

B (8)

EE (6)

B (8)

December 20

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This Rain Shoulda Been Snow

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This rain shoulda been snow

It’s December 20

But it’s sixty degrees

It is disconcerting

I worry for the trees

*

This rain shoulda been snow

The creeks rise once again

noisily tumbling

behind the town’s facade

groaning grumbling

*

this rain shoulda been snow

feet accumulating

softly and silently

muting society –

the rains acts violently

*

This rain shoulda been snow

hoping winter gets cold

that the cold hard rains stop

and the snow starts at last

Please send flake over drop

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A Monchielle Stanza

December 17

 

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The Best Things in Life Aren’t Things

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The time has arrived to celebrate

Best time of the year, some disagree

Things like cold, snow and short days dissuade

In fact I will not live without it

Life without winter cannot be great

Aren’t these humid summer months crappy?

Things are best with snowflakes, I’m afraid.

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(A Bumper Sticker Poem)

Bumper Sticker Poems – a form I created, inspired by cento and golden shovel poetry, with the following guidelines:

  • Using a bumper sticker as inspiration use the words in the bumper sticker as the first word in each line of the poem
  • The theme of the poem may or may not have anything to do with the message of the sticker
  • Title should be the words of the bumper sticker
  • Should be rhymed
  • 9 syllable lines
  • Number of lines depends on number of words on the bumper sticker

November 19

Decisions

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Two roads diverged in a wintery wood

They will converge again with different tales

One trail to the creek, one between hardwoods

One should keep your feet dry, boulders to scale

Other entails wet rocks hops and strong deadwood

Each would be a challenge, now to pick a trail

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(A Wreathed Sestet with a nod to Robert Frost)

November 17

Autumn Snowfall

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An autumn snowstorm has all the allure

Burgundy and golden leaves fall

With the unique snowflakes

A surprising

Artwork

Berserk

Mesmerizing

Looks like nature’s mistake

Colors mixed with no color at all

A collection of all nature’s grandeur

Consistently proving she’s not a bore

She just can’t help but to enthrall

Puts all the time she takes

Slowly devising

Field work

Fireworks

Emphasizing

The seasonal outbreaks

Bright sun, fall leaves, gray rains, snow squalls

An autumn snowstorm has all the allure.

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(The Balance)

November 16

Pause

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On my morning commute

I stopped at the sign

Fleeting moments captured

*

Just like every damn day

But today was different

Translucent, transcendent

*

Just like every damn day

The sky was bright, so was the sign

Seconds stalled to permanence

*

As the frost slipped down

Revealing alarming red

Temporary forever

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(A Line Messaging Poem)

November 15

Snowbirds

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Tracks in the snow let me know where you go

Gray squirrels run in circles throughout the woods

Near feeders the three-toed hops of junco

Woodpeckers pace up and down the ironwoods

Follow the heart-shaped tracks of buck and doe

We’re all leaving tracks through the neighborhood

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(A Sicilian Sestet)

November 14

Winter Woods

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They’re wondering about the shine out there

Mourning the fall on this frosty morning

Bare gray branches are more than they can bear

Warning us winter came without warning

*

No other season questions what you know

Wait while dormant branches support snow’s weight

So strong as below acorns gray squirrels sow

Ate one, shared one, then buried the next eight

*

I know winter’s magic astounds the eye

Piece of the woods covered in snow brings peace

Sky blue birds migrate past in the blue sky

Geese in their way in the v-shape of geese

*

Right now’s so stunning makes me want to write

Site’s so lovely it really is a site

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(A Shadow Sonnet)