Posts Tagged ‘Poetry’

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Spring visitor

bear
The dinner guest arrived late.
No invitation.
No reservations.
Alone.

Just newly awake,
belly growling with
a devastating hunger.

Drawn here
for a free meal,
easy,
high in calories.
A good deal.

He almost got away with it
but for a soft noise.

3 a.m. is the witching hour.
I look out.
Is he even real?
or a supernatural specter?

To Native Americans
he is a spiritual guide.
To Robert Frost
a being that roams wide:
“The world has room to make a bear feel free;
The universe seems cramped to you and me.”

Ursa Major dominates the spring skies.
The Big Dipper, a guide.
Under the stars, my bruin friend,
I whisper “safely abide.”

I will listen to the DEC officers
and take the bird feeders
down until fall.
When you next again
“rock a boulder on the wall”.

 

Black bear in Raquette Lake. Photo by Jeff Nadler, archive photo.


Saturday, May 13, 2023

Poetry: Can We But Live

Exterior image of camp/house
Can We But Live
Like tender pink spring blossoms bedecking tree limbs,
And arrow-peaks of infant conifers emerging from cold earth,
Rebirth and change, in their pristine delicacy, their exquisite bond,
Clean dried scales from tired eyes too long clouded,
While staunching tears too freshly spilled,
All, in an undisclosed and ever-changing plan.

Friday, May 12, 2023

Spring is Struggling to Break Through/Rites of Summer Late in Coming

snow crocus

Spring is Struggling to Break Through

Yes! Spring is struggling to break

through here

in the mountains –

northern part of lake still iced

over, shores snow-covered, no

Canadas or loons, handful of

mallards – yet but soon.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, May 9, 2023

Poetry: Chiroptera

poetry logo

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chiroptera

By Laura Bellinger

Apparently, last night
there was a giant hatch.
Thousands of tiny bugs, just specks,
have invaded my Adirondack porch.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, April 25, 2023

Poetry: When The Rain Stopped

Small island in Lower Saranac Lake

By Annette Pisano-Higley

When The Rain Stopped
Today the rain stopped, for a moment,
Yet, it did stop.
It left the air lighter, cleaner, brighter.
For a moment, I remembered
When the air was always that way.

Monday, April 3, 2023

Spring slowly

Adult male American Robin feeding nestlings

Deer are the first sign that

Spring has come … tracks up the

snow-laden driveway and in the

small meadow lakeside, wary polite

encounters when we drive up and

down our narrow dirt roads — the now

wiser deer engaging us, gauging our

movements and moments to dash from

one side to the other … full-rumped from

their winter encampments where they

avoid the few predators that dare the

deep woods, eat their fill of winter

mast and await the birthing of their

fawns in May and June.

» Continue Reading.


Wednesday, March 29, 2023

Bears

bear cubs

Diminution: I – BEARS, rev.

Author’s note: Spring is almost upon us and the bears will be coming out and eventually down to our villages and towns; will eventually have unhappy altercations with homeowners as food becomes scarce and they get hungrier. They will also get shot and killed — 16 last year alone by the DEC.

This poem is both a memorial to what occurred and an admonition about what is sure to occur again. The question it leaves unanswered — are we willing to do anything to prevent or mitigate that occurrence? 

» Continue Reading.


Saturday, March 25, 2023

Poetry in the ADKs: ACW’s new poetry machine, Poem Village 2023

A woman takes a break from her day to read a Poem Village submission in Saranac Lake

Saranac Lake, NY – Poetry is alive and well in the Adirondack region, inspiring folks to embrace their creative sides while visiting various locations in the Adirondacks. Two such examples of artistic outlets include a recently released Poetry Machine created by those at the Adirondack Center for Writing (ACW) based in Saranac Lake. Another is ACW’s upcoming Poem Village 2023, a program in which submitted poems will be published and hung in storefront windows in Saranac Lake in mid-April, remaining up until mid-May. Poetry submissions are due by April 1. 

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, March 21, 2023

March fever

When trees in morning March winds sway

it’s different from November’s gray,

those heavy pessimistic skies

which dormancy or death belie.

In March, with Spring’s rebirth in sight,

the treetops stretch toward Life, they fight

off stiffness, Winter’s coat they shed.

From deep below their sap is led

to flow, to course.  How they rejoice –

with dancing limbs their find their voice.

They won’t sleep now – they’re wide awake.

Their thirst for growth with light they’ll slake.

And I, who sit beneath and watch,

as one who might a fever catch,

am caught myself and share their thrill –

Life finds its way, and always will.

 

At top: Butterfly on dandelions. Wikipedia photo.


Sunday, February 19, 2023

Poem: Birdsong for our age

birds on a feeder in winter

The birds are singing.  Weeks too soon.

For them, is climate change a boon?

Won’t they need bugs or seeds to eat?

The ecosystems once were neat

and dovetailed nicely, well-designed.

But now look, Nature is inclined 

toward unpredictability.

» Continue Reading.


Wednesday, January 25, 2023

Poetry: Enough

Hibernating bear

Enough

Even here,

Pulling comforters close,

We are like sheltering bears,

Warming against each other,

In the comfort of each other,

Against the threat of elements

So beyond our control.

‘Together’ was ever the safe word.

Safe in a spreading wealth,

Of caves, trees, concrete, steel,

Of hands touching.

Buzzing hives of us,

Together is all we have.

Donning socks and scarves,

Against whatever may come,

We hope, we hope, we pray,

That together,

We’ll be strong enough.

 

Photo at top: Hibernating bears. Photo provided by Annette Pisano-Higley.


Friday, January 20, 2023

Primal Pleasure 

fire starting provided by CCEPrimal Pleasure

It wasn’t really on the list,

but why not take, I thought, an hour or so

to shift some things in the garage.

It was a good excuse to start an outdoor fire, 

to warm my hands between each shifting shift.

 Except, I spent more time beside the fire pit

than working hard on the garage.

» Continue Reading.


Monday, January 16, 2023

Poem: What I Learned From Butterflies

butterfly
What I Learned From Butterflies
Along my way, the butterflies whispered to me

About the nature of their lives. They said,
Everything changes in its own time,
As predestined, pre-ordained,
This is God’s supreme mystery.

Friday, January 6, 2023

Poetry: Let’s Talk Backpacking

winter hiking

Challenge that toward discomfort slips,

which morphs then into dull hardship.

Angry shoulders, feet forlorn.

Sweaty toes, shirts rank and torn.

In the darkness, making camp.

Wood that doesn’t burn for damp.

» Continue Reading.


Tuesday, January 3, 2023

Poetry: For The New Year

For The New Year

To those who gather family near,
Or are alone from year to year,
To those who give and who receive,
To those who may or not believe,
I send these words across the miles,
And right next door, where waits a child,
In hopes of better days ahead,
For peace, with no more tears to shed,
For love of earth and love of man,
For reaching out to all we can,
To stop wars here and in far lands,
To mute the guns and soothe the cries
Of innocents, make safe their lives.
Hope can rise when fear is gone,
Life is strong, free to go on.
When greed abounds, no good can grow,
Nor mercy thrive, nor justice flow.
New Year bells must righteous ring,
O’er everyone and everything,
Ring out the old, ring in the new,
And Happy New Year, is my wish for you



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