A Blog for 2025

April 30, 2025 Watching Kingfisher How lucky I would be if I could stand upon a branch and soak in the blue and greens of a spot of water instead of placed around a table with people who don’t take time to breathe or understand each other?                                   (published in Plum ; Spring 2025)   I believe we'd climb walls of stone                together Conquer armies of anxieties forever. Abandonment and addiction tightly           sewn                                                A lifetime's work to unfold and hone We played a round of Exquisite Corpse at Jo's tonight to demonstrate to some people who'd never played it before.  Made me rem...

April 29, 2025 Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday to you Happy Birthday, Dear Annie, Happy Birthday to you. The horses are back in the field.  It was a perfect day. photo by Skyler Skyler and I went to GCC for the launching of Plum.  Maria Williams was the feature reader.  She's so good, knocks me over.  Can't wait to get to know her poetry even better.      I read my poem, too.  Seemed an appropriate piece to read within those four walls. A nap and a ride to the rookery followed lunch.  It was 79 at the rookery at 4 and perfect, I'm telling you, the weather was perfect.   I wrote a little.  I wrote 10 single sentences that I may or not use in something.  But I just wanted to create 10 stand alone sentences.  and then a group of us went to the Poet Seat Contest Gala reading.  2 LAVA folks were finalists: Skyler and Jo.   They read wonderfully and their pieces were superb.  I thought better than t...

  April 28, 2025 I had lunch with one of my favorite people today, Herb.  I think what makes him one of my favorite people is that when I spend time with him I feel truly understood.  I feel heard and seen for me. I think he feels the same way about me.  When I left lunch, and went to my nap, I slept harder in the next hour than I have in months.  It was such a great feeling.  I went up to the rookery around 5:30.   It was 72 degrees and beautifully sunny.   An hour earlier it was 83 at the Coop.  The temperature has yoyoed over the last few days with these big sudden swings.  Tonight's didn't bring rain and actually, the wind is calmer.  There were song birds in the pond, but very few ducks or geese.   The reflections were stunning tonight. I sat up there for an hour, but saw very little and wrote very little.    I have entire week of writing events in front of me.  Tomorrow is all listening and t...

  April 27, 2025 They came to visit and Eliza and I got to play.  She continues to author poems and she is memorizing.  She recited The Owl and the Pussycat to her mother the other day, and today as her Poppa recited Robert Frost she showed me that her socks are sealions that like to sleep on a pillow.   Through years of not speaking, I hungrily read through your poems. Swallowing them whole, gasping for air. Someone I don't have to regret loving is what I am gasping for. Someone I don't have to protect my heart from. Then this morning I devoured a ham, cheese and mushroom omelet. A love as  simple as that.  Turtles aren't really birds, but I will count them today. Upon the log, upon the tree destroyed by winter's wind. Mergansers play like school yard buds. White flashing wings skimming the edge. Don't know how to write about addiction, although I know it's the door to the end of the quest. To love as simply as the making of eggs And letting go of the...

April 26, 2025.   I have so much to share tonight.   I decided to cancel all of my plans today and just zero in on my writing.  It's been a wonderful day.   But the first thing I wanted to share with people is Billie's Blog.   https://phrenectomy.com/2025/04/25  Phrenectomy.com I think I already mentioned that they were interviewed about their artwork in a magazine recently.  They have that linked to their website.  You can also read their blog.  I love today's post.   It poured today.  I sat in the car in the driveway for awhile before I went into the house.      I wrote at the rookery for about an hour.  I'm working on some couplets.  I wrote a poem, too, or at least the first draft of a poem while I watched the life in the pond.  The young muskrat was really exploring and he startled the turtles and himself when he tried to climb upon the log.    There was actually ...

April 25, 2025 Happy Birthday, Alex. Managed to place my phone camera on a lens function I'd never seen before.  Entered a psychedelic LAVA for a few hours.     That's a little more realistic.  Wasn't meant to work tonight, but circumstances worked out so I hung out with Charlie.  It was Art Walk in Greenfield and there was a pretty consistent flow of people.  There was a time a few years ago that we tried to have music.  We didn't tonight, but people came out to see the shows.  It was a good evening.  Jack, when did we enter our 70's, weren't we just turning 18?  I think I still have the present you gave me for my 18th birthday. LAVA really is doing well and I am so glad it is transitioning.  I think I let go of another responsibility tonight to someone who will take over and do a very participatory job.  We also cemented the plans for the Word on Art on Word gallery show for July and August, which will be really interest...

April 24, 2025 Diversity in duck community.   Got another poem accepted in a journal.  And also did two more submissions.  In both of the new guidelines I read one cannot have a poem previously published in a blog either.  They are counting posting a poem in one's own blog as publishing.  I kind of disagree, but I can see counting submissions to other people's blogs as publishing.  And in the case of Queen's Narrative, I was paid, so that definitely counts as publishing.  The point is I now have to be more careful about which poems I post here.  I'm a little worried about being organized enough to remember.  I'm going to have to create a Table of Contents.  It was a nice day.  It started with breakfast with Denise.   I went to the rookery around 3, it was 73 degrees and beautiful.  There were very few things to watch,  it's siesta time for nature.   I decided it was siesta time for me too.  ...

April 23, 2025 How many deer do you see in this photo? I feel like I had a major break through in my life this week.  I think a new chapter has begun and in it my heart is open and I am self caring and I'm embracing myself for real. I pulled over to sit and stare at this space, this pasture which I write at a lot.  Today I realized it was representative of my new being, my new chapter.  It's this beautiful space where anything might pop up.  At any moment something special might appear, a bear, a turkey, several deer or this robin whose staying so near.  This single female turkey was pacing the edge of the field for quite a while.  I just took it all in.   Then a woman, walking her dog, came by and we talked.  She told me that her daughter had sent the dog home to her from Palestine.  Her daughter works for Palestine and had found this puppy and paid to have it sent to her mother in Shelburne where it lives this incredible dog life....