© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Text:
sun and moon...
beyond smudged glass
a clarity
June 3, 2018
Happy Haiga Day!
This photo was taken back in late February. It was a beautiful almost-spring day, and then we got three killer nor'easters complete with snow!
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Text:
sun and moon...
beyond smudged glass
a clarity
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Text:
sun and moon...
beyond smudged glass
a clarity
June 1, 2018
Poetry Friday--Mr. Twain
I started this in response to Michelle Barnes' Today's Little Ditty challenge for May from Julie Fogliano: "stare out the window and write what you see." When I looked out the window over a period of a few days, all I noticed was the variation in the weather. That led me to look for the expression that I always assumed to be about New England weather, "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute." In my research I found a great quote from Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens):
The photo I found to illustrate my ditty, has Mark Twain looking out a window in 1903, possibly in New England on a spring day.
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.
Text:
In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of twenty-four hours. --Mark Twain from a speech delivered to the New England Society, December 22, 1876
Mr. Twain Exaggerates
...Only Slightly
A wisp of mares' tails.
A bank of solid gray.
A breeze to tickle the hairs on an arm.
A wind to make flagpoles sway.
A mist to burn off in sunlight.
A torrent to wash frogs away.
A drip of sweat, a shiver of cold.
An average New England spring day.
I ended up writing a cherita to post on Michelle's TLD May padlet, because I actually did see something outside my back window (three rabbits). Michelle featured it on Wednesday (thanks, Michelle).
Today's Poetry Friday Round-Up is being hosted by Buffy's Blog.
In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of twenty-four hours.I was going to use it to write a haibun, which is a prose piece that includes haiku. But, it turned into a little rhyming ditty.
--Mark Twain from "New England Weather," a speech delivered to the New England Society, December 22, 1876
The photo I found to illustrate my ditty, has Mark Twain looking out a window in 1903, possibly in New England on a spring day.
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Photo courtesy Library of Congress.
Text:
In the spring I have counted one hundred and thirty-six different kinds of weather inside of twenty-four hours. --Mark Twain from a speech delivered to the New England Society, December 22, 1876
Mr. Twain Exaggerates
...Only Slightly
A wisp of mares' tails.
A bank of solid gray.
A breeze to tickle the hairs on an arm.
A wind to make flagpoles sway.
A mist to burn off in sunlight.
A torrent to wash frogs away.
A drip of sweat, a shiver of cold.
An average New England spring day.
I ended up writing a cherita to post on Michelle's TLD May padlet, because I actually did see something outside my back window (three rabbits). Michelle featured it on Wednesday (thanks, Michelle).
Today's Poetry Friday Round-Up is being hosted by Buffy's Blog.
May 29, 2018
Haiku Sticky #455
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Text:
you have to wonder
how a man without a heart
can hold the reins
May 27, 2018
Happy Haiga Day!
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved. Woodcut by Shinsai Ryūryūkyo (circa 1804-1818), image altered by Diane Mayr.
Text:
under the willow
fish under the shadow
of a heron
May 25, 2018
Poetry Friday--Snapping Turtles
Update: My friend, Mary Doane (aka "The Turtle Lady"), told me it was probably an Eastern painted turtle. After looking online, I agree. Here's the information on the painted turtle. The teeny turtle, if lucky, will only grow to about 6 inches.
Snapping turtles in New Hampshire can grow to be 70 pounds. And, as their name suggests, they snap. People have told me stories of chunks taken out of oars by snapping turtles. Stay away from the big ones!
A few weeks ago, though, a co-worker found a baby snapping turtle on the parking lot asphalt. Not the best place to be sunning one's turtle self.
It was tiny! I didn't hesitate for a second to pick it up and move it to a safe spot. Relocation involved taking a walk through the woods behind the library. I had never been more than 10 or 20 feet into the woods in the 20+ years the library building has been occupied. I knew there was a swampy area down the hill, so I started walking. I went past two old stone walls, over a well-walked, but unmarked path, and ended up at the swamp that turned out to be an active great blue heron rookery. I counted seven herons on or next to nests. Another heron flew in as I watched. I was a bit hesitant about leaving the turtle, since it might have made a snack for any one of the herons, but, I felt it was safer at the edge of a swamp than in the middle of the parking lot!
The baby snapping turtle in the parking lot was a real mystery. It was too early in the season for turtles to be hatching, so it must have been one of last year's hatchlings. How had it survived 2017-18's long, cold winter? How had it gotten such a great distance from the water?
Last year, not far behind the library, a large snapping turtle dug several holes, but we never saw it laying eggs. Why it would have chosen the dumpster area behind a library for it's nesting spot is beyond me!
Perhaps the little guy was the progeny of the library dumpster turtle?
A lot of background for one little poem!
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Visit Margaret at Reflections of the Teche where you'll find this week's Round-Up.
Snapping turtles in New Hampshire can grow to be 70 pounds. And, as their name suggests, they snap. People have told me stories of chunks taken out of oars by snapping turtles. Stay away from the big ones!
A few weeks ago, though, a co-worker found a baby snapping turtle on the parking lot asphalt. Not the best place to be sunning one's turtle self.
It was tiny! I didn't hesitate for a second to pick it up and move it to a safe spot. Relocation involved taking a walk through the woods behind the library. I had never been more than 10 or 20 feet into the woods in the 20+ years the library building has been occupied. I knew there was a swampy area down the hill, so I started walking. I went past two old stone walls, over a well-walked, but unmarked path, and ended up at the swamp that turned out to be an active great blue heron rookery. I counted seven herons on or next to nests. Another heron flew in as I watched. I was a bit hesitant about leaving the turtle, since it might have made a snack for any one of the herons, but, I felt it was safer at the edge of a swamp than in the middle of the parking lot!
The baby snapping turtle in the parking lot was a real mystery. It was too early in the season for turtles to be hatching, so it must have been one of last year's hatchlings. How had it survived 2017-18's long, cold winter? How had it gotten such a great distance from the water?
Last year, not far behind the library, a large snapping turtle dug several holes, but we never saw it laying eggs. Why it would have chosen the dumpster area behind a library for it's nesting spot is beyond me!
Perhaps the little guy was the progeny of the library dumpster turtle?
A lot of background for one little poem!
© Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Visit Margaret at Reflections of the Teche where you'll find this week's Round-Up.
May 20, 2018
May 18, 2018
Poetry Friday--A Year or Two or Three Ago
I'm having a bit of a dry spell as a writer. It could be the state of the nation (depressing), or it could be that the spring weather is making writing seem like a winter-only activity. It could just mean that I need a break. Whatever the reason, I have nothing new. I'd feel guilty about not have a Poetry Friday offering, so I'm looking back to May last year, the year before, and a few years before that to see what I was writing.
May 16, 2017
golden bright
the new green lit
by sunlight
songbirds vocalize
with a spring breeze
May 17, 2016
an absence
of poetry today
--colonoscopy
May 17, 2015
mid-December
Halloween's butterfly wings
now on an angel
[Obviously, I was working on my Angels project at the time.]
May 17, 2014
Family Vacation, Circa 1961
We never went on cruises
or stayed at vacation resorts.
Our vacation spots were
cheaply rented or borrowed
bungalows, often shared
with aunts, uncles, and cousins.
One night we all went to dinner.
Nothing fancy, not expensive,
but the food must have been
good, because two men of
some renown came in to eat--
Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.
I'm sure you've heard of them.
They were gods--baseball gods!
We got their autographs on
the greasy spoon's cheap paper
napkins. If only someone had
had a camera to take a family shot.
May 19, 2013
Mother's Day...
on the soles of her shoes
pink petals
May 17, 2012
spring rain...
the lean in the sapling
the lean in me
May 11, 2011
late afternoon...
today would have been
her birthday
May 18, 2010
GRAY
Two months before he and Mrs. Lincoln
went to Ford's Theater, the president
had a portrait taken at Mr. Gardner's
Gallery. The photographer caught
the shadow of Mr. Lincoln. He was
by then, merely a body without its soul.
Little did John Wilkes Booth know,
his bullet would only be the coups de grace.
I was going to go back to 2010, but the above is so depressing, I'll go back another year!
May 17, 2009
three new songs
their singers unknown
--Sunday morning
All poems © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Rebecca is hosting the Round-Up this week at Sloth Reads!
May 16, 2017
golden bright
the new green lit
by sunlight
songbirds vocalize
with a spring breeze
May 17, 2016
an absence
of poetry today
--colonoscopy
May 17, 2015
mid-December
Halloween's butterfly wings
now on an angel
[Obviously, I was working on my Angels project at the time.]
May 17, 2014
Family Vacation, Circa 1961
We never went on cruises
or stayed at vacation resorts.
Our vacation spots were
cheaply rented or borrowed
bungalows, often shared
with aunts, uncles, and cousins.
One night we all went to dinner.
Nothing fancy, not expensive,
but the food must have been
good, because two men of
some renown came in to eat--
Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris.
I'm sure you've heard of them.
They were gods--baseball gods!
We got their autographs on
the greasy spoon's cheap paper
napkins. If only someone had
had a camera to take a family shot.
May 19, 2013
Mother's Day...
on the soles of her shoes
pink petals
May 17, 2012
spring rain...
the lean in the sapling
the lean in me
May 11, 2011
late afternoon...
today would have been
her birthday
May 18, 2010
GRAY
Two months before he and Mrs. Lincoln
went to Ford's Theater, the president
had a portrait taken at Mr. Gardner's
Gallery. The photographer caught
the shadow of Mr. Lincoln. He was
by then, merely a body without its soul.
Little did John Wilkes Booth know,
his bullet would only be the coups de grace.
I was going to go back to 2010, but the above is so depressing, I'll go back another year!
May 17, 2009
three new songs
their singers unknown
--Sunday morning
All poems © Diane Mayr, all rights reserved.
Rebecca is hosting the Round-Up this week at Sloth Reads!
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