My Pleasure -

              It's Poetry Friday, and Jan Godown Annino is hosting HERE on her website,  Bookseedstudio!  She's hosting with a "Love Day 2026" post!

            Thanks bringing the love to us, Jan! 

        I'm sure most of you are watching the news, then shouting out and cringing at what it brings to us, nearly by the hour, and in reality, every day. I watch, or listen. I know I need to keep informed, to learn more ways to act! Yet, having a break is helpful. It's good to put other things on my mind. As some of you share, you go outside. Even around the block is helpful. When I visit the cemetery where my husband is, I talk with him, missing him, telling what's happening in my life, the one he left, the one where changes are happening, grandchildren growing up, and on. 

        On the edges surrounding this lovely place are wooded areas where I walk, looking and listening, feeling they are there just for me! The other day I heard a rustling, saw what I thought was a couple of birds hopping around. I could see movement, but little else showed in the shadows and tangles that the trees and downed limbs made. 

Nature’s tangles bring shelter.

Small creatures find homes.

People create stories

as imaginations roam.

                Linda Baie ©

Poetry Friday - What I Learned

             It's Poetry Friday, and Ruth is hosting HERE on her website,  There Is No Such Thing As A Godforsaken Town!  She's sharing a poem that seems as if it's for our Colorado wintry day, the first after multiple warm days, breaking records! It feels just right, so be sure to read her post!

            Thanks for hosting, Ruth!

The Pleiades 

             

      What I Learned Growing Up

Sometimes I would climb out a window

Onto the roof to watch the stars.

My grandfather taught me not to be afraid –

To look for goodness no matter when or where.

It waited to be found. 

 

Linda Baie © 

Say her name! Renée Nicole Macklin Good 

Pleiades Stock photos by Vecteezy

Poetry Friday - Be Bold!

 

Poetry Friday - For our new year - 2026

               It's Poetry Friday, and Catherine Flynn is hosting HERE on her website,  Reading to the Core!  She shares her poem that one can use as a guide for 2026, lovely to ponder as we start living the year! 

            Thanks for hosting, Catherine!

             I've been thinking about the impact one person can have on lives near and lives far, something that nudged me as I've had a lot of time recently with my grandchildren, Carter, who lives far away, but was here during the holidays, then Ingrid and Imogene who live near, and during "their" vacations, have helped me so much managing the bookstore's donations. It's been a busy time for everything, but donations continue to arrive, and my usual volunteers are busy with their own holidays and families. 

          Margaret Mead's words stay with me: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it's the only thing that ever has." Have the girls and I changed the world? No, yet I imagine they might later in their lives. However, they did change the bookstore's inventory, always needed. 

          Recently, I read a folk story about the robin. Perhaps you know it, but it is new to me. It appears to have some variations if you search for it.

 

         A Tale of Old

                      (to be so bold)

 

Praise this somber feathered friend 

winging home in dark of night.

 

A father and son shivered in their bedding,

fire’s embers weakening as they slept.

Robin noticed its light subsiding,

flew to see what could be kept.

Its fluttering wings returned fire to life, 

adding warmth to the strangers’ beds.

In the deed, it scorched its chest

earning its name, Robin Redbreast. 

                       Linda Baie ©

Stick Stock photos by Vecteezy