late december songbirds scatter after the hawk's arrival

sunrise even the coffee maker pauses

wake-up call the squirrel on the roof again

birding together we stop holding hands to adjust our binoculars

coffee maker sputtering the steam of this day quickly disappearing

sharing a slice of pumpkin pie I feel the warmth of your smile

snowy owl sighting so many people and none of us talking

december 1 before I've recovered from November's bills

morning traffic a killdeer trying to navigate the divide on a divided highway

It's Chili Season!

waiting room the chex cereal woven into the party mix

persimmon seeds look what the wind left behind

costco inspiration I get a second opinion on the chili

bad hair day I'm just a porcupine in a silk t-shirt

to all ye merry revelers a few rum shots for your eggnog

omicron variant will the new year be a pandemic repeat

holiday lights

cold coffee my payback for having neglected you

winter sunshine I embrace the empty spaces between leaves

ocean scene the screensaver disappears

holiday lights a one-sided conversation with santa

mismatched clothing this is what I wear this is who I am

art museum the embroidered girl stitched with love

my wild roots not going back to the manicured lawn

hermit crab if you don't want that shell I'll take it

cornfield rows not every ear can hear you

fade

football goddess the lopsided smile of nike on every jersey

gunshots a neighbor thankful for bullets and the 2nd amendment

thanksgiving day birdsong my morning coffee with friends

flu season wrapped in a frayed beach towel I drink my hot chocolate

standing water the orange flare of bald cypress

cemetery entrance both cannons pointed at us

The Loon's Visit

red morning a fisherman watching the bald eagle's flight

in an old cemetery where the hickories once stood puffball mushrooms

a woolly worm's stripes recording a *normal winter*

day of the dead breakfast the server hands us crayons

lake companion for an hour the loon's visit

late for my appointment the silhouette of a sandhill crane

a drooping flower along with biden's poll numbers

astronomy class I'm not a star pupil

2021 trick or treaters the smell of chocolate and hand sanitizer

The Photos of Hockey Players

gray weather the woolly bear surrounded by leaves

storm damage my view of the barn door askew 

autumn drive the beer cans outnumber the trash cans

streetscape the yellow glow of hickories

procrastination's calendar maybe tomorrow

an endangered species the moderate republicans

morning cut the magnetic snack clip clinging to the knife

physical therapy my chair under the photos of hockey players

The Shadows of Butterflies

morning drive the cornfields shortened to stubble

wildcard spot a baseball cap for the scarecrow

early fall the black snake with the same curve as the stone

september we share our walk with the millipedes

thistle to thistle the shadows of butterflies departing

t

  emps

a

              ll

                         over

        the                                       place

makeshift memorial this is not how the trip should end

owl whoots around the fullness of the moon

glass paperweight I hold onto your fingerprints

autumn hike the trees dwarfed by el capitan

dad's army uniform 40 years later it still fits

military hospital 10 geese flying in formation

end of the road the chicory blues waving me home

Who's Going To Test The Gorillas

neighborhood watch after midnight we follow the trucks w/o license plates

9/11 to 9/12 our journey will never be the same

hidden security cameras the squirrels are not smiling

biden mandate who's going to test the gorillas

around the world on a placemat the outdated flag of afghanistan

the china challenge as if they were announcing a new game show

catnip advisory I wouldn't walk past that chair

no moon the sycamores like the other trees now

9/11 chrysanthemums a shared day of remembrance and mourning

well-worn book cover after so many reads, the ending never changes

moth after moth

political landscape who's in charge of the changing narrative

bank pen someone's broken the chain

heat index easier to gauge than your temper

ida what soul can withstand such hammering*

woodpecker this is not a practice drill

silent sentinel a long time since there's been smoke from the chimney

moth after moth their wings make the light flicker

pandemic's success no matter which corner we turn

Hurricane Ida Devastation

august calendar I mark off the days that separate us

Fariba Nawa: An Exile Finds Home

TEDxMonterey

Every Other Line Of Me There's Something That Hurts

one i ness I lost an L or two along the way

car accident my horoscope lied to me about it being a good day

august heat the shoulder throbbing to its own music

trump rally invite how did I get on the insanity list

goldfinch survives its low flight across a 4-lane highway

last day of school 3 afghan girls walk thru the uncertainty of kabul

every other line of me there's something that hurts

shahada on the new flag what will be the women's testimony after being deserted

childhood family my voice silenced by violence

afghan tragedy words are not enough to save these women

The Taliban Returns

latest diagnosis my body has a shelf life

running out of july heat the crayfish chimney

sweetgum tree the sidewalk where I fell last autumn

dad's birthday the swim across the lake takes longer each year

oregon's deserted highway the day and night terrors of the bootleg fire

*Bootleg fire named after the Bootleg Spring nearby. It's now become the 3rd largest recorded fire in Oregon's history. The fire is now half the size of Rhode Island. It's creating its own weather including hurricane force winds. 

Bootleg Fire News

mud splattered hair a german woman cleaning up the debris of climate change

Historic Flooding in Europe

remembering twa flight 800 we do not close the book on family

this day 25 years ago

TWA FLIGHT 800

binx the cat returning to ground zero maybe my family's still here

july's calendar

backyard architecture the dirt castles of ant hills

delta variant maybe it's time to mask up again

toads the only patio furniture I have

somewhere between broke and broken the gate and my bank account

mysterious bird illness the vast emptiness of skies without wings

out of nowhere the plastic bag's flight faster than I can chase it

summer invasives nothing's eating those berries

heat and humidity part of july's calendar

4th of july sale the free kittens in the walmart parking lot

ripening berries another black bear spotted in union missouri

july 1 the clothes left in the dryer wet again

If you don't want the past to be your future, stop living there.

Minimalism Made Simple

Universal Truths

sun-damaged youth every mole is suspicious

political arena my daily news dose of depression

baptist church faith grows in the wildflower garden

portland, moscow, lytton we can't go north to cool off

daisy circles clocking summer's passage

mental illness the lengths between hurdles and silences

rivers rising to the cymbals of thunder and the drums of rain

universal truths I don't believe in heaven or hell

The New Chapter

summer lightning pages of sky briefly lit

rumble of fireworks nature and human nature

repeating myself like the weather

fresh clover the rabbit's return after the rain

new chapter the one armed reading glasses retired

uap report I'm not surprised there are no surprises

holding up better than the border wall the division between dems and the gop

occluded front what biden said vs. what biden meant

2017 flashback over 500,000 fugitives removed from the gun background check database*

nymag article

ohio rally the trump nightmare continues

repeating myself like the weather

patience a green heron teaching me how to fish

passing storm no trip worse than a guilt trip

A Wish For Rain

spam mail and robocalls I'm popular again

tiger lilies stretching into the sunshine

unrelenting heat the breeze is missing

wild raspberries if they had a wish it would be for rain

marbling the paint has its own ideas

cedar siding getting old like me

weather predictions about as accurate as a horoscope

chemotherapy wigs each style a different shade of hope

solitude a blue island between clouds

traveling again a paper airplane lands on the rocking chair

morning dj some wild blackberry tunes from the brown thrasher

         216 days until christmas

(time zone results may vary)

a "good morning" accident the "joy to the world" coffee mug unscathed

growing older I see my quotation marks repeat themselves

middle east cease fire the smaller birds chase the hawk away

trump de fleur in the legal woes he planted

may be cloudy more than rainy

saturday's garage sale sunday's news

uneven sidewalk a sparrow pecks at a ritz cracker

pond sunrise the wisps of fog forgotten

QAnon and Cyber Ninjas at least the UFO's are real

memorial day talk near the maple tree you planted

tail o'clock

nature's politics the atmosphere recharged by lightning

fog in motion above the rain cooled pavement 

tail o'clock at 3:30 am the cat's day is just beginning

origami sculpture a yellow butterfly flits past the fabricated steel

red-winged blackbird trilling away the morning rush hour

every spring the silk fluff of cottonwood trees 

mid-may maybe we should keep wearing our masks

road trip an old gas pump its last sale for thirty-four cents

morning fog lifted by the song of a wood thrush

nature walk our sketches of bluebirds in flight

pizzly hybrids even bears know global warming is real

Pizzly Bears

pandemic weary the dispensers of hand sanitizer disappearing

science center games I don't need my readers for the giant uno cards

light rain the smear campaign of wipers against the windshield

first of may the young leaves on the catalpa tree

friday's news in place of real discussion, press "cancel culture" now

Grocery List of Insomnia

pollen count surrounded by allergies and too much information

cedarness a cardinal not good at hiding itself

skunk hour every hour on cool nights

1/3 moon 1/3 owl 1/3 dog the grocery list of insomnia

political theater ushers stumble over their own words

gun talk lies same arguments different day

side effects the unknown road of covid vs. the vaccine

late afternoon a water strider's ballet

church steeple a new beacon for gun-toting people

Refers to Missouri GOP bill about guns in churches and on buses and other public transportation. The rationale is that more guns make us safer. The gun violence in St. Louis is a perfect example of how this logic plays out. More guns DO NOT make us safer. 

The bill sailed through the house and is on its way to the Missouri GOP controlled Senate. 

Guns in Churches

HB944

my weedy self refusing to use roundup on my property

grumbles of thunder a lot of misinformation about the American Jobs Plan*

*also referred by the media as the Infrastructure Plan. With the different names of the programs, media calling it one thing and the administration breaking it down differently, it's hard to keep up.

American Jobs Plan

American Families Plan

lightning in the forecast congress split along party lines

acorn energy the squirrels make their own circus

full moon the finger-pointing of politicians solves nothing

april voting bill a vinyl record spins back to the 60s

mother earth flipping its axis or flipping us off

Magnetic Pole Shift

faded flag at dawn you can still see the outlines of stars

tilted barn the gravity of self-righteousness pulling me down

irises the footbridge with a hint of blue

old field invaded by a miniature forest of dandelion stalks

Abuse takes many forms. It's a growing pandemic. We are not only the victims of abuse, we are also the abusers. 

April 22nd is Earth Day. Every day everyone of us abuses this planet we call home. 

plastic air every day we wrap ourselves in denial

It's Not Just The Oceans

wall clock insomnia one ticks while the other tocks

fallen deer long after the pond ice is gone

national pencil day the afternoon sky in every shade of lead*

*Link to the National Day Calendar:

National Pencil Day

a full moon lightly circling the pond's stillness

wedding anniversary we find a chickadee nest in the bald cypress

"Fear never has anything good to say." ~ Cindy Tebo

bill collectors and other cloudy attempts to dampen my mood

watercolor artist the pond painting the sunrise

morning frost the spring peepers are silent

st. patrick's day a parade of daffodils

ides of march since covid-19 the days just repeat themselves

pi day the flood warning on einstein's birthday

the wind's decibels trees and everything else swaying to the music

rain patters the cat circles the house one more time

slow down ! ! I can hear my knees

imprecise memories a pinch of mumbo jumbo in the gumbo

breaking its silence a few bursts of lightning in the storm's tweet

red sky the wheels of perseverance making tracks on mars

Perseverance Rover on Mars

march traveler the doomsday asteroid getting a closer look at the earth

APOPHIS ASTEROID

snow moon I forget about going back to sleep

to-do list nothing seems important since you've gone

listening for spring a red fox in the sun

unsteady walk the thud of icicles falling off the house

One way to help Texas is to donate to the Salvation Army:

https://www.salvationarmytexas.org/

boil order extended what's february like in cancun

lingering winter the turkey between the stripes of a fence's shadow

ground freeze the political grandstanding of the gop censures

in every depression the endless white of blank spaces

2nd acquittal each new band of snow deeper than the last one

so this is valentine's day

valentine's day 2021 another low another record broken

valentine's day blizzard the frozen tears on his mask

valetine's day the deer antlers sticking out of the snow

hearts on iron fences a reminder it's valentine's day

wind chill below zero it's valentine's day

a pond you can walk across it's valentine's day

trumpism alive and well it's valentine's day

the absence of birdsong on valentine's day

miles from home the sandhill cranes refueling in a farmer's field

a veil of mist reshapes the canyon

morning coffee some flower dust on a honeybee

notes of sunshine the seconds trilled away by birdsong

aquarium a young boy's laugh finding the clownfish

the red lichens with their own language scrawled across the rocks

I catch my breath on a steep hill--the gumbo lily

fern green the lushness surrounding the waterfall

hands of a climber the rolling hills before the mountains

tanawha sunrise the hawk's profile

first snow the cat runs back into the house

this winter a siskin's moment with the goldfinches

haiku inspired by my journal and a 2021 nature calendar 

moving on if only we were more like water every time we fell

wolf moon coyotes howling somewhere in the distance

prairie burn the short-eared owl perches on a charred cedar

cave entrance we only go as far as the sunlight will take us

longer days a pair of goldfinches just passing by

spring peepers no way to adjust the volume of their chorus

swollen feet the many reflections of tupelo

cattle egret in the middle of the day both of us at a standstill

red, yellow, orange the indian paintbrush with an autumn palette

the water boatman ferries itself across the pond

cedar apple rust creating its own type of bloom

buckeye butterfly we share a moment on the sandbar

blazing star quenching my thirst for color

frost extends the borders of a red oak leaf

glade reverie in each ladder of success another flower

a grayness follows the farm plow bonaparte's gull

the sugar maples already dressed for winter

Inspired by Natural Events Calendar 2002

january news a river fog blurs the crystal blue sky

icicle clinging to the greeness of a canyon fern

a young woodcock blending into the leaves of this year and last

arbor day the planted tree a few feet from the fallen one

the mockingbird's red mood guarding the holly berries

violet hepatica spring vibrates with each pulse of color

raccoon disturbance the evening's just getting started

lowbush blueberry I'd never expected to find scarlet here

spotted fawn everything looks new in the old hayfield

a milkweed pod filled with possibilities

strands of dew add prisms to the spider web

cushion moss using the rocky hillside for a pillow

whirligig beetles the future of water in every turn

barn owl peering out into the dusk of winter

Inspired by the 2003 Natural Events Calendar

presidential inauguration I will remember Bernie Sanders' mittens

falling snow the bluebird makes a spot for itself

sunset not much time to find the end of the trail

leaf litter I spy a striped chipmunk

fox kits the smallest one hiding behind its siblings

hummingbird the red rubies of tail feathers

glade coneflower the petals purple the air

busy june a swallowtail convention on a sandbar

redistributing the wealth a sweat bee spotted yellow with pollen

a waxwing crown almost invisible in the cedars

heavy rains the voice of water tumbling over rocky crags

waning summer a skink sliding over splintered logs with ease

midwestern fall hard to enjoy the scarlet leaves here

                         with a landfall hurricane in the south

cool september the smartweed caterpillar wearing its coat of many colors

3 deer each 1 looking at november from a different direction

tall grasses the brief splash of gold on a sunless day

Inspired by the 2016 Natural Events Calendar 

 

political angst the gop has given elephants a bad name*

*referencing flak I got for something I wrote because it referenced Elephant Rocks State Park and democracy. It was interpreted as a pro-Trump message instead of a message of hope that is found in nature. Rocks that have been around for billions of years are still with us today and that is my hope for democracy and freedom, however naive that hope may be. 

I thought about taking the post in question down but decided against it. Words can be interpreted in many different ways regardless of what I intended. People will see what they want to see. It also gave me perspective on what people who are conservative and labeled "far right" go through on a regular basis. I just got those same slings and arrows.

mourning dove feathers puffed out in a battle with the frost

driftwood anchor an otter surveying the icy water

pintail duck in midair I could use a wingful of energy

may apple on the forest floor the sun finally reaching your bones

bewick's wren the lilacs can't be far away

a bullfrog's swim through the fallen leaves of the last storm

abandoned field fireflies creating their own path of light

years' past the pink columbine from Colorado here, too

allred lake the cypress older than our republic

wild geranium bloom I, too, have life lines

castor river the granite forms of resistance

rest stop the monarch shielded by a sunflower

orange sky the stained glass of sugar maples

gnarled cedar how many revolutions have you seen

cardinal bright morning the red notes of someone else's song

a ring-billed gull its wings tilting towards the new year

Inspired by 2013's Natural Events Calendar

pickle springs winter the rocks become snow-capped mountains

tufted titmouse the first hints of dawn in a gray sky

with eagle intensity a pilot before landing

woodland splash the coyote sees me first

lamps of mushrooms across the forest*

a defiant stare the sparrow holds onto the ice

independence day miles above the pink granite the milky way

green heron almost missing him under the tupelo

nature's fireworks the sensitive briar lights its own fuse

valentines in august the prairie roses

cathedral dasher with spindly legs and crystal wings

the post oaks next to the diamond scores of dead ash

a cypress swamp the fog settles in for the night

blue clusters mapping out the small world of cedar berries

hooded merganser you've taken my morning hair to a new level

the december hurry starts with flurries

*bonnet mushrooms

Inspired by the 2014 Natural Events Calendar

new year old year the mobster-in-chief inciting a mob

snowstorm no one expecting the bluebird

morning hike a cottontail standing in the snow

ice crystal tethered to the briefness of winter

swift current the sycamores tinged with rust

hughes mountain a fog drifts into our silence

trail guide each black-eyed susan

snowy owl how many miles did I walk to get here

a white tail negotiating the riffles

female cardinal red enough to be a beacon in the cedar

spotting a gray fox every color in the crayon box

lunch time a butterfly in a field of thistle

a scraggly wildness in the milkweed blooms

no one knows how they got here gooseberries part of the fence

sunny umbrellas the gray headed coneflowers

it's not spring until the redbuds open

sleepy hollow the sudden gold of witches' butter

the purpleness of a prairie in september

rain clouds on our last walk together

Inspired by 2020's Natural Events Calendar

snowmelt not even coffee can clear the morning fog

frozen facebook page unfriended by winter

insomnia what do sheep count

years of neglect in the barn's collapse 

black ice a skid turns serious

doctored documentary this is not what happened

subtle changes in the gray to grey clouds

the spaces of loneliness, the senseless clutter

repurposed keys and the doors they went to forgotten