Tag Archives: Poetry

May Day is Ah-MAY-Zing!

Posted on by
4

Gather all the little children
With May flowers in their hair
For they shall dance
Around the maypole
For they shall dance
The day away

May Day blessings to all – A little May Day poem by Athey Thompson

For me, the month of May is the BEST not only because of Mother’s Day but it’s also my birthday month.

Last year Mother’s Day and my birthday fell on the same day. It’s an extra special treat for my two favorite days to be combined into one celebration.

The best known modern May Day traditions include dancing around the maypole and crowning the May Queen. Fading in popularity is the tradition of giving of “May baskets”, small baskets of candy or flowers. I think we should revive that adorable custom, don’t you?

Just in time for May Day, I found an adorable porcelain flower basket at Goodwill for about three dollars and I HAD to bring it home with me.

So far, this month started off in an ah-MAY-zing way.

Since it wasn’t a great video, I won’t post it, but THREE coyotes came to visit last night– THREE! — all together, and early this morning at first light, another coyote visit was captured on my wildlife camera. That’s NEVER happened before and I am soso excited.

The weather is warming up; all the fruit trees are flowering, the roses and ceanothus and lavender are in bloom, and baby birds are hatching.

Beltane, which takes also takes place on May 1st, is a celebration of the abundance of Earth and the forces of Nature. Bonfires are traditionally set to engender a sense of connection with ourselves and all living beings, but that wouldn’t be a smart thing to do in our wildfire ravaged state, so the flame from a safe candle must suffice.

Happy May Day and Happy Beltane!

Suspire: Word of The Day

Posted on by
Reply

The word of the day is “suspire“(15th century): to let out a deep sigh.

The verb suspire is considered obsolete today—we might only encounter it in poetry.

In Robert Frost’s poem “Sitting by a Bush in Broad Sunlight,” he wrote: “And from that one intake of fire / All creatures still warmly suspire.”

Not only is it a literary way to say “breathe,” but it also rhymes nicely with “fire.” The Latin root is spirare, “to breathe.”

Sometimes I sigh and sometimes I forget to breathe until I remember that I need to take a deep breath.

Info curated from https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/suspire

Miracles and Magic

Posted on by
4

Let’s go
To where the magic waits for us
Where our hopes, our dreams
Our wishes. Come true.
Athey Thompson

Yesterday was a magical day full of miracles.

In the garden, I looked up in a tree and saw two hawks mating! (I didn’t take any photos to protect their privacy.) Last night one of the wild baby bunnies was on the deck and scratched at the screen door like it wanted to come in the house (I didn’t open the door, but I was tempted), and the third miracle is that my adorable little vireos are once again nesting in a brand new bird house!

Vireo

“And as to me, I know nothing else but miracles” — Walt Whitman

Reflections: In The Garden of Thoughts

Posted on by
Reply

That’s one of the messages that emerged about being unplugged for almost a week…it’s important to make time to see and feel what’s in our hearts.

In solitude, there is healing. 
Speak to your soul. 
Listen to your heart. 
Sometimes in the absence of noise we find the answers.

Mirrored on the lagoon.

Photo credit Enchanted Seashells

Another one of my secret spots to take a break, breathe, and reflect.

Looking west toward the ocean; peaceful, not a ripple.

Photo credit Enchanted Seashells

**Quote from a lovely little inspirational book by Dodinsky.

April’s Aspiration and Inspiration

Posted on by
3

This is what my heart dreams about in the deep of night.

Fairies dance in the moonlight
With hearts that shimmer bright
And wings that flutter softly
Making magic in the night”

~ Randi Kuhne

Credit to artist, image curated from Pinterest.

Sleeping in the Forest

Posted on by
3

The full moon and lunar eclipse again wreaked havoc with my sleep – I woke up several times seemingly for no reason, but I looked out the window and said “goodnight, moon“, as if I were in Margaret Wise Brown’s classic book where the bunny says goodnight to various objects and creatures before drifting off to sleep. 

I thought the earth remembered me,
she took me back so tenderly,
arranging her dark skirts, her pockets
full of lichens and seeds.
I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,
nothing between me and the white fire of the stars
but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths
among the branches of the perfect trees.
All night I heard the small kingdoms
breathing around me, the insects,
and the birds who do their work in the darkness.
All night I rose and fell, as if in water,
grappling with a luminous doom. By morning
I had vanished at least a dozen times
into something better. –Mary Oliver

Cinderella by Frances Brundage

What’s Growing in the Garden

Posted on by
2

Mushrooms!

This is an indication of how much rain we’ve had in Southern California and just how soggy the garden is…and more rain is on the way.

Unidentified fungi appeared in the crevice of a split ficus trunk that was cut down a couple years ago because the roots were starting to come too close to the foundation.

I wanted to keep the stump instead of grinding it because I thought it was architecturally beautiful and now it’s decomposing exactly like I hoped it would.

These mushrooms are definitely not edible, right? They’re most likely poisonous and I’m certainly not going to find out one way or another. I’m not THAT curious or adventurous. Or dumb.

A day later, here’s how they morphed and darkened, plus it’s raining:

Fascinating!

I found a poem by Emily Dickinson about mushrooms…

The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants

The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants –
At Evening, it is not
At Morning, in a Truffled Hut
It stop opon a Spot

As if it tarried always
And yet it’s whole Career
Is shorter than a Snake’s Delay –
And fleeter than a Tare –

’Tis Vegetation’s Juggler –
The Germ of Alibi –
Doth like a Bubble antedate
And like a Bubble, hie –

I feel as if the Grass was pleased
To have it intermit –
This surreptitious Scion
Of Summer’s circumspect.

Had Nature any supple Face
Or could she one contemn –
Had Nature an Apostate –
That Mushroom – it is Him!

Portrait of a Finch

Posted on by
8

My poetry professor would be proud of this haiku I wrote…

solitary finch
perched deep in the mulberry
will you stay or go?                                 
                                  By Princess Rosebud

This morning, I looked up into the branches of a winter-nude mulberry and couldn’t resist snapping a photo of this precious little finch.

I had to run to retrieve my phone as I willed her to stay long enough for a photo op. “Please don’t move, please don’t move, please don’t go.”

And she didn’t.

I was rewarded with a mostly monochromatic composition, which is exactly what I’d hoped for. In reality, the little bird has a yellow breast, but the quality of light turned everything almost colorless and dramatic.

The Star Fairy

Posted on by
9

Stars are dropping thick as stones into the twiggy
Picket of trees whose silhouette is darker
Than the dark of the sky because it is quite starless.
The woods are a well. The stars drop silently.

Stars Over the Dordogne – Sylvia Plath

The Star Fairy, (2012) Catrin Welz-Stein