POEMS FROM THE FRONT PORCH

Front porch, Couchwood; swing behind the column

SLOWLY, THE CHANGE
Purple,
pink and maroon
foliage, suffused by green,
belie oranges and browns in
the flag
[9. 29. '16]

IT'S NO USE, GREYE
Cat looks
into the house,
'meows' to be let in.
But the owner--me--sits outside,
says, "Wait!"
[9. 29. '16]

FUTURE NEIGHBORHOOD
Before
winter sets in,
crews working overtime
to get the new subdivision
finished.
[9. 23. '16]

A BREATHER
Taking
a break from church,
awaiting the 'hundred
percent chance of rain' on the front
porch swing.
[9. 18. '16]

JEWELS
Raindrops
hang and sparkle
on the vintage corn plant
after last evening's surprising
shower.
[9. 14. '16]

A young Billy on the front porch at Couchwood

PEAR-MOTIF POEMS – AND SAYINGS ABOUT PEARS

Pear harvest of an earlier year,

Couchwood, Saline County AR

From my January Gimcracks (publ. 2003)

 January 30: “drizzly morning/ a lone yellow pear/ in the blackness” –

~~~

 From Dim Sum, 2005/II, p.23

“apple orchard--/could I have/the pear tree” – by Yu Chang

 ~~

From day breaks, Dion O’Donnol, Feb. 20, 2000:

“pear tree/ white explosion on/ the blue day”

~~

 From my unpublished sweetness of the apple

winter solstice ~/ the last piece of pear cake left/ from Thanksgiving

~~

Cutting a pear/ Sweet drops drip/ From the knife

---Shiki Masaoka, from P. Donegan’s Haiku Mind, Shambhala Publ., Boston, 2008, p. XI

~~

“As for my next book, I won’t write it till it has grown heavy in my mind like a ripe pear.”—Virginia Woolf

~~

PL, posted 9.15. '16.

Though it's not yet fall, folks are calling September "autumn" - poems

Couchwood in autumn, PL

DELICIOUS FATIGUE

Falling

into the bed

without nightly reading--

bushed from two days of minding a

toddler.

LEGACY

Out of

fifty tulips

he gave her before he

died, the pink one lasted until

Easter.

OH, NO!

After

company left,

I sat down to relax,

saw a dryer sheet peek from my

pant leg.

HAIKU
while I'm reading

a crisp brown leaf

sails onto my journal
~~
white spaces
in the haiku journal
ideal for my own
~~
at the last minute
the singer changing his song
to "Amazing Grace."

~~

c 2016, PL dba lovepat press. First 3 poems from "September Cinquains," 2003; haiku from "a lamp to work by," 2012