Poetry Friday - Longing?

          It's Poetry Friday, and Karen Edmisten is hosting on her website, The Blog With The Shockingly Clever Title!  Find it here! Perusing poetry by Arthur Sze, she's written a poem for us all, a way to live on this earth. There are choices! 

           Thanks for hosting, Karen!

            As I'm writing this on Thursday, when it's in the sixties, I'll share the longing that may come true, tomorrow! We've had the longest time since any snow, only a bit of rain on a few days, in the last forty days! We've hit the February record for third warmest, least snowy, second driest! Flowers are coming up and I saw a few flies buzzing around the other day. Ski resorts are hurting, skiers are mourning, as are all the places that depend on very good wintertimes in order to make a living, to keep ALL their employees!

            I know, there is a long list of things for us to worry about, and except for my own watering, and trying to make good choices for our environment, other bigger world crises are occurring, too, some of which I can do something about. Certainly, work to be informed, donate when possible, write whomever seems helpful, and volunteer to help those in need, all are on my list. 

the one snow we can actually call snow - Dec. 3rd

Today, right now, HURRAH! 

Winter of My Mind

for the books I read

the cold I know

the shout of children in the snow

dinners in the early dark

fire flaring in the hearth

the cozy home to which I go

the quiet hush of earth

that is the winter that I know

                                     Linda Baie ©

Love May Be STILL be in the Air

         It's Poetry Friday, and Susan Thomsen is hosting HERE on her website, Chicken Spaghetti! Susan shared a challenge last week on her post that you can read about here! And, so I wrote!

         I am excited to read what Susan and others have written, and this week, especially if they're responded to Susan's prompt! I haven't even read Susan's! 

I stop somewhere waiting for you

 

I believe that anywhere with you is grand.

The magic is that elsewhere is also true.

Whereas the stumper makes us continue to search

To discover if wherever will bring the magic 

Of everywhere for you?

                                Linda Baie ©

Wishing you all peace and love this weekend! ❤️

Poetry Friday - Love Is In the Air!

        It's Poetry Friday, and Robyn Hood Black is hosting HERE on her website,  Life on the Deckle Edge! She's sharing some new creations from her Etsy shop and some advice to remember when living your days!  

          I so loved that prompt that Molly Hogan gave her Inklings this last week. You can read her post here! Each poem shared was delightful! So, I thought I could write one for this Saturday, Valentine's Day. I tried a number of things, even a reverse one, for hate, and was then inspired one afternoon as I browsed up and down my grocery store's holiday aisle. (They still have winter holiday things up, too!) I fell in love! (One remains open to ideas everywhere, right?)

      For Valentine’s Day

Suppose we gifted stuffies

Like parents, sweetly, lovingly,

Leaving no one out.

 

Linda Baie ©

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Poetry Friday - Finding a Break

       It's Poetry Friday, and Molly Hogan is hosting HERE on her website,  Nix The Comfort Zone! She's sharing her own delightful poems after Wendell Berry's "Like Snow". You may want to try one, too! Be sure to visit to read them! 

         Thanks for hosting, Molly!

      It's been a week, full of little to celebrate, but I am trying to help where I can with the political storm filling our days. Best to all of you wherever you live, but especially Laura Purdie-Salas in Minneapolis. I saw your post about the protesting, and Randy and his group playing music for Alex Pretti. It was both beautiful and heartbreaking. Thank you and them for me! 

Warmed under the sun,

I watch crows hang out in my yard

Wheedling at each other 

To see where to peck

 

Linda Baie ©

Poetry Friday - Finding What's Needed

               It's Poetry Friday, and Tabatha Yeatts-Lonske is hosting HERE on her website,  The Opposite of Indifference!   

            Thanks for hosting, Tabatha, hoping you aren't snowed in, yet! 

         I've been reading some short pieces by John Muir recently, and then a few days ago, I was looking through some of the poetry books I own to see if I could give up any of then to the bookstore where I work. Then, I came to a book titled Home, A Journey Through America, illustrated by Thomas Locker, edited by him and Candace Christiansen. It was published in 2000, and has a special introduction by Locker, who shares that his idea of home can be so many things, "For everyone, the place we call home becomes a part of our lives." My colleagues gifted me this book when I moved into Denver back in 2012, with very mixed emotions. The poems range from poets still writing like Jane Yolen, across our history to those well known in the past, like Abraham Lincoln, Willa Cather, Joseph Bruchac, and the poet I chose to share today, John Muir. And Thomas Locker illustrated each poem.

   I'm connecting to what I shared last week, a poem finding solace in the imagination when outside in nature, when many of you shared how much peace and joy came when you went outside! See what Muir wrote! Note: some online says this is not a true poem, but well-known lines by Muir. Still, Locker presents it as a poem. See what you think! 

        Hope you are doing okay if impacted by the storm coming across the US! I'll be watching the news. It was 11 degrees when I rose this morning with a light dusting of snow. We are not supposed to have any more, just cold! 

                   Climb the Mountains

                                        John Muir

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. 

Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. 

The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, 

while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.