Poetry Friday - Coda

       It's Poetry Friday, and Patricia Franz is hosting HERE on her blog Reverie! Thanks for hosting, Patricia!

       After an unusually warm October, winter temps moved in Wednesday. I'll have a lot more to do, but I raked leaves all day Tuesday, starting the autumn leaf grab. Too many trees surround my home, so I'll gather for several weeks until a final layer is left for a winter blanket. Raking means slow moving and slow looking, so I discovered a tiny flower not seen before. Taking one's time, to "look long" is often rewarding, thus my poem today. 

       Finale

 

While raking leaves

before the winter party

returns,

I discovered

one stem of purple bells –

still chiming.

 

Linda Baie ©

 

Poetry Friday - Looking Long

                Poetry Friday this first Friday of July is hosted by Tricia Stohr-Hunt at her blog, The Miss Rumphius Effect. Today, she shares a triolet, inspired by her grandmother's stories of experiences in the Great Depression and World War II. Thanks, Tricia! Hope everyone enjoyed their Independence Day celebrations.








           When I taught, my students and I spent many hours outside with field journals, recording what they observed, questioning, doing further research, sketching. I used the following poem by John Moffitt often, hoping it would inspire each to settle in a quiet space and "look long".  

To Look At Anything

To look at any thing,
If you would know that thing,
You must look at it long:
To look at this green and say,
“I have seen spring in these
Woods,” will not do – you must
Be the thing you see:
You must be the dark snakes of
Stems and ferny plumes of leaves,
You must enter in
To the small silences between
The leaves,
You must take your time
And touch the very peace
They issue from.

~ John Moffitt ~

         Many of you know I spent the past two weeks at the beach, first enjoying the house by the shore myself, then with my family in the second week. I wrote many things, some simply to capture the moments, but one poem came through my own 'looking long' and appreciating more than I had in the past. Perhaps it is the political climate today that also inspired, but my thoughts during this 'looking long' made new connections this year.

Daily Slice Search

Join us on Tuesdays with the Two Writing Teachers and others who post. 

 

        I wrote about this same topic last Saturday, celebrating my daily walks. Yesterday was a grey day, full of snow in the morning and bitter cold. Luckily the sun did appear and my daughter and granddaughters came to spend the afternoon, just hanging out and visiting. It was a sunny day after all.

        This morning, still cold but I was determined to get out and continue my walks exploring the various parks within my neighborhood. There are many and this time, a short drive brought me to Crescent Park, a bigger park with a hill built in that I hadn't walked up yet. I make it a goal to look for beauty and surprise, and if I take the time to "look long" (see poem by John Moffat here) I do find something to love. This morning, I found, sometimes in my imagination!

growth

a gathering

a place to sit

Looking Long

                    The Tuesday Slice of Life is hosted by Ruth and Stacey at their blog,       
                         Two Writing Teachers.  Go on over to read some terrific slices!

I am reminded of the John Moffitt poem that begins like this:

To look at any thing,

       If you would know that thing,

     You must look at it long:

and you can find the rest here.

I had Sunday afternoon, a cooler day, to do some yard work.  A cold front is on its way, so the temperature had dropped to the 60’s and it was a pleasure to be outside doing a task that I had put off, but needed to do before the Monday trash pickup.  This is definitely a slice of my life, to work outside when I can, now planting a few seeds, pulling grass from the flower beds, sweeping the caterpillar-like seeds dropped from the aspens. 

This time, my task was to rake all the little sticks that drop consistently from the cottonwood tree in our backyard.  While it’s a beautiful old tree that gives wonderful shade, cottonwoods are messy and drop sticks constantly.  We’ve had some high winds recently and more have blown down because of that too.  And so I grabbed my rake, a trash bag and was off to the chore.