Pear-motif poems

From my January Gimcracks, January 30, 2003,

drizzly morning

a lone yellow pear

in the blackness

~~PL

From Dim Sum, 2005/II, p. 23:

apple orchard--

could I have

the pear tree

~~Yu Chang

From day breaks, February 20, 2000:

pear tree

white explosion on

the blue day

~~(the late) Dion O'Donnol

LOVE POEM II

I just finished breakfast

--cheese omelet

with picante sauce,

coffee, milk,

and a ripe

(the best kind)

pear.

I thought of you

and your buckets

of blown-off-the-tree

pears,

not to mention those

that resisted the wind.

It does not take much

to call you to mind--

maybe nothing at all--

but the pear served

admirably.

I hope you harvested

as much good from them

as I did.

~~Reformed from a note or email sent by L.T. sometime during 2012.

A poem by Wendell Berry

DARK WITH POWER
Dark with power, we remain
the invaders of our land, leaving
deserts where forests were,
scars where there were hills.

On the mountains, on the rivers,
on the cities, on the farmlands
we lay weighted hands, our breath
potent with the death of all things.

Pray to us, farmers and villagers
of Vietnam. Pray to us, mothers
and children of helpless countries.
Ask for nothing.

We are carried in the belly
of what we have become
toward the shambles of our triumph,
far from the quiet houses.

Fed with dying, we gaze
on our might's monuments of fire.
The world dangles from us
while we gaze.

--from The Selected Poems of Wendell Berry, page 28,
originally in the book Openings (1968) 

MID-SUMMER RAINS (poems)

AUGUST, 2017
T-storms
forecast daily
this week. Eek! New Orleans
is flooded. Are we next in line?
Not yet.
~~~
DELUGE
Blowing
rain--hard--pooling
in the grass; grays the street
and air. But--as if in a one-up
contest,

vicious-
sounding pickups
roar past angrily toward
somewhere. I sit under the roof
and swing.
~~~
AUGUST 1, 2012
Raining
just long enough
for me to walk around
the side of the house and turn off
the tap.
~~~

AUGUST 31, 2012
"Speed bump
ahead" sign just
above the floodwaters.
Boaters using other street signs
as oars.
      *
Remnants
of Isaac make
it to our state, with wind
and downpours, somewhat relieving
the drought.
~~~
~~~
c 2017 PL dba lovepat press    





















`

Several Etheree poems

PROBLEM

A

hummer

trapped inside

the screened-in porch--

it wouldn't be shooed,

hov'ring above door frame

bumping 'gainst transparent walls.

No butterfly net handy. But

an open wire hanger just might work:

hook red feeder on open door. Voila!

1997 ~~~

FRUGALITY

I

go through

coupons clipped

four months ago

from papers' inserts,

note expiration dates--

some 3 months old, some three days

past, which I separate and trash,

add current ones, still full of the hope

that I might save a dime or two next trip.

1998~~

THE SWIM SUIT AD

You

see this

bathing suit?

Now, do you see

the model pictured?

Is she a size 16

in women's, for heaven's sake?

More like a 6, but hey, her top

enhances her like mine: it smashes;

the waist minimizer feature doesn't!

2000~~

DR. JOHNNY WINK, OBU

His

satchel

in one hand,

a paper scrap

in the other, the

English professor walks

to class on the city's bike

trail and memorizes poems.

Once, I offered him a found pencil.

"Thanks. Some student always comes without one."

2001~~

c 2017 PL, dba lovepat press

Poems from the Unpublished card file - August

1997
God's feathered fools
surely remain in the woods
of cat heaven
[image from Charles Allbright's AD-G column]
~~~
2000
today, calico
following MY lead
naps at my bedside~
~~~
2005
picking his garden
with a dead leg and a cane
92-year-old
[image from Jay Grelan's AD-G column]
~~~
2006
fishing the river
snake holding a live catfish
floats near my bait
[image with no attribution]
~~~
2010
a late breakfast--
shall I take an early nap
or eat some ice cream?
[I did both]
~~~
2015
new grocery list
cat food, calcium
and coffee
~~~
2017
Second
blooming this year,
the Encore azaleas
brighten the mid-summer landscape's
green-ness.

c 2017 PL dba lovepat press

More summer poems cat, heat, drought

Greye Laster cat

IT'S COOLER DOWN HERE

smart cat!

Rather than rest

in the attic's heat, he

spends his afternoon nap on the

fourth stair.

~~

STRANGE ONE

Strange one

at the birdbath:

stretched out, a foot long, eyes

checking the water. Finally,

he laps.

~~

A FIRST!

After

all these years, Greye

jumped up on the loveseat

in the space between my paper

and me.

Never

has he done such

as that. He reclined in

the small spot, put a gray paw on

my leg.

~~

Storm building in Fairfield Glade, TN on sisters' trip

smelling

rain, but the sun's

shining

~~

ALL THINGS IN THEIR TIMES

Every

time I looked up

at graying clouds, I prayed,

"Please rain. Please rain." Hours later,

spitting.
~~

Yellow

pansy hanging

out of the pot. Could I

hear it gasping, "Too hot! Water!

Water!"?

~~

parched ground somewhere

c 2017 PL dba lovepat press

Birds in the Bush and Tree- poems

LIVE MUSIC
A wren is close
in the holly tree,
a mockingbird farther out,
a robin in the dogwood,
and a cardinal's 'chit-chit'
from the maple.
~~

woodpecker
tapping on the roof
above me
~~

Thrasher
flies to, lands on
a horizontal limb
of the ancient crape myrtle, lost
to sight.
~~

"Killing
me with your song!"
I tell the bird, not six
feet from my ears in the holly
treetop.
~~

Slight breeze
but no wind chime.
Mockingbird takes that role
well enough. Ah! There's a very
soft tone.
~~

I swing,

cooling off from

a spate of afternoon

yard work, while the mockingbird sings

for me.

~~

FROM THE BACK PORCH STEPS

Last call

of the redbird.

As the night bugs waken,

western sky shows only its blues.

I rest.

~~

~~

PL, 2017