Category Archives: nature

Bird Speak

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Day 23 of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) 

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt is to write a poem that focuses on birdsong. I wrote about birds, but not songbirds. Oh, well. Here ’tis:

Bird Speak

Scrub-jay squawks accusingly at me
from atop my backyard fence.
What offence I may have committed, 
I do not know, but he’s got that
“you know what you did” tone.
“I shouldn’t have to tell you.” 

Always a tricky situation. Do you
try to guess, and risk confessing to something
they didn’t even know you'd done? Do you 
ask forgiveness, even though you don’t know for what? 
Am I overthinking the meaning of this jay’s
strident vocalizations? 

My dog Chules joins me on the deck, and the scrub jay
aims his admonishments at the pup. 
Now I know he’s just making stuff up. 
Chules is a good boy, and – while he’s been known to
chase some wildlife now and again – 
he always gives them a good head start
lest he actually catch something. 

Rather abruptly, scrub jay zips his beak, and
flits up into the canopy of the black walnut tree. 
A large black crow swoops over my rooftop
and lands on the fence, inches from where the 
jay had been holding court moments ago. 
With one loud caw, he announces: there’s
a new corvid in town. I don’t see a badge, 
but I won’t argue.

Chules and I are forgiven our sins, so long as 
we don’t try to pull any of that crap on the crow. 
Mind you, crow has no better idea of 
our transgressions than Chules and I do. 
We agree to his terms nonetheless. 

Chules is tempted to run at the crow and scare him off the fence,
but thinks better of it when he remembers being previously 
dive-bombed by said bird for just such behavior. 
I go back to pulling weeds, and the scrub jay… well, 
we likely won’t hear much from him for a while.

Pilgrim Ridge

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Day 14 of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) 

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt:

try writing a poem that describes a place, particularly in terms of the animals, plants or other natural phenomena there. Sink into the sound of your location, and use a conversational tone. Incorporate slant rhymes (near or off-rhymes, like “angle” and “flamenco”) into your poem. And for an extra challenge – don’t reference birds or birdsong!

Here we go:

Pilgrim Ridge

Atop Pilgrim Ridge, miles from nowhere – 
no, that’s not an apt description;
Nowhere is quite near, in fact it’s right here –
crisp, pure silence defies definition
until one acclimates to the endless sky,
the light savory air,
the rocky ground stubbled in dry
remains of early summer wildflowers.

Leaning into the silence, one begins to hear
the percussive opening of a breeze-soft symphony;
gentle crackling of seed pods, split as the sun bears
down, the shaker of seed shot falling to ground,
a brush-on-cymbal swish of grasses swaying together,
the guiro scrabble of chipmunks skittering up
skinny pines to hide in long-needled shelter.
And then the music ratchets up.

The chipmunks begin their cuíca scoldings.
Wind chimes low tones in the clustered trees,
now weaving. Grasses are folding in the
hot air. A steady push now; no longer a breeze.
Clouds scuttle in and the thunder drum shakes,
first slow and lumbering, then brash, a 
crescendoing rumble
that ends with a lightning-bright quake,
and the diminuendo of tambourine rain.

Cuíca Sounds

Pink Moon

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Day 13 of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) 

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt:

Donald Justice’s poem, “There is a gold light in certain old paintings,” plays with both art and music, and uses an interesting and (as far as I know) self-invented form. His six-line stanzas use lines of twelve syllables, and while they don’t use rhyme, they repeat end words. Specifically, the second and fourth line of each stanza repeat an end-word or syllable; the fifth and sixth lines also repeat their end-word or syllable. Today, we challenge you to write a poem that uses Justice’s invented form.

And so:

Pink Moon

April’s full moon – the Pink Moon – lights the sky tonight.
Its name evokes spring flowers: creeping phlox, moss pink.
Where I live the red flowering currant blooms now. 
Amongst shrubs with still bare branches, a pop of pink.
    I stepped outside to view the moon. It wasn’t there.
    I’ll check later. Perhaps it’s neither here nor there.


Flowering currants are first to bloom in my yard
of native species. Osoberry comes on next.
Its small pale blossoms don’t make nearly the same splash.
Oregon grape blooms next, and then the next, and next.
     The Pink Moon is not pink; the red currant blooms are.
     I’d check again, but cat-in-lap says no, so here we are.

The Ocean

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Day Zero of NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month). Or is it NaPoWriMo eve? I shall endeavor once again to meld with my muse and meet the challenge of writing a poem a day for the entire month of April.

Our first (Early Bird) prompt from NaPoWriMo.net is to 

Pick a word from the list below. Then write a poem titled either “A [your word]” or “The [your word]” in which you explore the meaning of the word, or some memory you have of it, as if you were writing an illustrative/alternative definition.

From the list (which I won’t reproduce here) I chose the word “ocean.” Hence:

The Ocean

Bestower of bounties:
one may fish for a feast
or dive to the depths 
plucking pearls from the peace.

Betrayer of boys
setting sail on the seas,
seduced by the Sirens,
then besieged by the beast.

Mantra of mindfulness,
mysterious muse,
meandering metronome,
hewer of hues.

Destroyer of destinies,
splitter of seams,
shattering ships and
drowning brash dreams.

Thunderous thralls turn to
tranquil translucence.
Balmy or bawdy,
a nymph or a nuisance. 

Such is the kaleidoscope,
the ebb and the flow.
We are moored to this tempest;
mind, body and soul.

Alphabetical April

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Day Eighteen of National Poetry Writing Month! Today’s prompt from NaPoWriMo.net:

write an abecedarian poem – a poem in which the word choice follows the words/order of the alphabet. You could write a very strict abecedarian poem, in which there are twenty-six words in alphabetical order, or you could write one in which each line begins with a word that follows the order of the alphabet. This is a prompt that lends itself well to a certain playfulness. Need some examples? Try this poem by Jessica Greenbaum, this one by Howard Nemerov or this one by John Bosworth.

My offering: 

April 
buds curling,
dense earth frees 
ground-harbored insects.
juncos, kits, larvae; 
Mother Nature opens,
poetic quatrains rustle,
spring’s timely unfolding,
verdant waves, 
xenial youthful zeal.

Sonnet Sunday

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Day Nine of National Poetry Writing Month! Today’s prompt from NaPoWriMo.net:

We’re calling today Sonnet Sunday, as we’re challenging you to write in what is probably the most robust poetic form in English. A traditional sonnet is 14 lines long, with each line having ten syllables that are in iambic pentameter (where an unstressed syllable is followed by a stressed syllable). While love is a very common theme in sonnets, they’re also known for having a kind of argumentative logic, in which a problem is posed in the first eight lines or so, discussed or argued about in the next four, and then resolved in the last two lines. A very traditional sonnet will rhyme, though there are a variety of different rhyme schemes.

My attempt:

For the Love of Springtime in Colorado

Boots sinking deep in mud-browned melting snow,
sweatshirt peeled off and knotted at my waist.
Spring’s dichotomy in Colorado.
Wool socks, sun shades; my rucksack packed in haste.

Crabapples bloom, spent petals drifting down.
Snow lingers where protected by thick shade.
As winter seeps into the thawing ground,
summer will drop like curtains on a stage.

I trek on, heedless of sign and season.
Despite spring breeze or autumnal bluster,
ubiquitous blue skies transcend reason.
I suck the thinning air, my strength mustered.

Toes white with cold, face tanned by sun, I smile.
Springtime in the Rockies keeps one agile.

And click here for a throwback to a previous sonnet I wrote.