Keep Moving

Credit: slhy | Shutterstock.com

The air is petrichor and pine

mixed with the spiciness of new mulch

Birds skitter across leaf litter

looking for seeds

The dogs and I

out for a walk,

basking in first warmth

I want to pluck this moment out of time 

keep it in my pocket

but the dogs pull on their leash,

a gentle reminder to

Keep moving.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, An Old Man's Fancy

Spring Intoxication

Spring arrives in southern Maryland

like a drunk at a party.

No subtlety, she

slams open the door and enters shouting,

tripping over herself

in a garishly colored frenzy.

Red lipstick askew,

her hues argue amongst themselves

competing for attention.

The forcefulness of forsythia,

the hysteria of wisteria

push and shove for center stage

amidst the brash green grass.

She leaves a coating of pale yellow pollen

on the street

on the cars

on us.

We choke on her perfume.

It rains

suddenly,

forcefully,

precipitous sobs of incoherence,

then stops just as suddenly.

Jaundiced puddles of dust and water

are left behind.

Dirty pools of slurry,

like a drink spilled

in an ashtray.

Her exhibition repeats daily

until she exhausts herself,

 collapsing into the damp, overheated heap

of summer.

Spring Unprompted

photo source

April brings clouds,

dreamlike, ethereal, feathery

Gaining height,

intensely jeweled kites lift

May’s newly opened pink quince

Rain showers tease umbrellas

Violets, wisteria  xplode

Yellowweed zydeco.

submitted for 2 prompts from Imaginary Garden With Real Toads:

Words Count With Mama Zen, unprompted 

and 1 to 30, A to Z

Rainy Days of Spring

source

She loves the rainy days of spring

She dances out the kitchen door

To twirl and splash while robins sing

She loves the rainy days of spring

Much more than flowers, showers bring

the fragrance of sweet petrichor

She loves the rainy days of spring

She dances out the kitchen door.

submitted  for   Day 23 triolets, of NaPoWri Mo,

On Uncovering an Earthworm

Yesterday was one of those perfect early spring days,

the kind of day so vivid

the colors announce themselves with exclamation points

Green!

Pink!

Purple!

The daffodils were so yellow (Yellow!)

that they put to shame anything else that dared

call itself yellow.

It was that kind of a day.

I was weeding the flowers beds

and pulled up a particularly stubborn clump-

weeds, roots, dirt-

and revealed an earthworm.

The soil was still cool,

and the earthworm was still sleeping

when I suddenly and rudely removed his blanket.

I imagined him yawning,

rubbing his crusty eyes,

and saying, “What the hell?!!”

I apologized

and quickly covered him back up.

I wondered if the earthworm later 

told his wife, “I just had the weirdest dream…”

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Accessible Poetry 
(inspired by the poetry of Billy Collins)

Red Tulips

art by Baslee Troutman

Before you died,

you planted red tulips in the front yard

You never asked us first if we wanted red tulips

but I didn’t mind because they were beautiful

After you died,

the tulips still bloomed each spring,

pushing up through the snow and hard earth,

rising from the dead

It seemed to me somehow metaphorical

Spiritually significant

Then the rabbits ate the red petals,

leaving only headless stick-like green bodies

and the voles and squirrels ate the wintering bulbs 

Now we have no tulips

I’m not sure what the metaphor is supposed to be

but I see you looking down,

shaking your head,

laughing.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Sunday Challenge, April, Come She Will

A Couple of Couplets

Spring is here; the cherry blossoms bloom

Bringing fragile flowers, soft perfume

April's wind and rain are not discreet

Lay pink petaled rug beneath our feet

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Form for All, Framed Couplets

Mouse's Cherry Tree

I've been arting again! The flowers are all blooming around here. We have a gorgeous Japanese Cherry Kwanzan tree in our yard that inspired me to try this project. The background is watercolor and the blossoms are mulberry paper dyed with watercolor (pink) and yellow stamping ink in the middle. The leaves are green mulberry paper. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out.

Happy Spring!

See No Evil

black snake at Brookside Gardens

Black snake suns on log

Bead black eyes stare from raised head

Forked tongue scents spring air

I watch as people stroll past

Unaware, they have no fear

submitted for Poetic Bloomings, In-Form Poet, Tanka

A Trio of Tanka

source

Snipping back dry sprigs

Dirt under my fingernails

Scent of rosemary

Winter's unruly blanket

Shelters spring's tidy green growth

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Great blue heron prints

Raccoon trails under boardwalk

Deer hooves pressed in mud

Hieroglyphics of the wild

What is lost in translation?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tiny white flowers

Paint over winter's canvas

Pure as spring snowfall

Come summer, white becomes red

Innocence becomes passion

Submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Format Challenge (Tanka)

Spring, Battle Creek Cypress Swamp

image source

 Tiny spring peepers

Chirp love songs from the Cypress

Bull frog bass back beat

Mayapple leaves spread

Catching cool raindrops falling

Umbrellas for toads

Ethereal mist

Blankets buds, warbler takes wing

Traveler on Earth

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, A Word With Laurie, Ethereal

and Old Pond A Frog Leaps In
and 

Written for The Haiku Challenge 2012 - Day 19 – February 19th – Theme: Seasons Type: Kigo