Birds & Cats: cinquains

IT TAKES A VILLAGE
Alarmed
cacophany--
a robber in the gum:
the crow retreats with starlings in
pursuit.
~~~~ 2003

ELIZABETH CALICO SAYS:
Tuna --
while I like to
lick the can, I don't like
the 9-Lives brand of tunafish
cat food!

~~~2003



Playing

in the high grass,

only his tail showing,

the young cat bats at the yellow

flower.

~~~PL 2013

Boots sits

on the Ford roof

surveying his green world

full of birds & squirrels. There goes a

bluejay.

~~~2013 

Raining.
All outside cats
run in when I open
the door: Ebonyzer, Blackie
and Bibbs.
~~~2014




Angry
mockingbird mom
scolds, divebombs Boots-the-cat
for merely walking around in
the yard.
~~~2014

Passing
by the window,
I see a bluebird at
the birdbath. It dips in twice, then
flies off.
~~~2015

Daddy
bluebird bathes. Soon,
a robin flies in, up
in a menacing leap. But Dad's
not scared.
~~~2016

PL dba lovepat press


May poems: tanka

is the loss
of two old oaks
the reason
the irises
bloomed so well?
~~

sparrow
wading in
then jumping ot
of the birdbath--
a windy May Day
~~

country air
rife
with aroma
of privet
and honeysuckle
~~

on the bike path
BLIND CURVE--
KEEP RIGHT
but the deer
can't read

[devised from photo by S. Breidenthal, AD-
G, May,'15]
~~

honeysuckle patch
hiding a bank robber
and his accomplice

[OTHER DAYS- AD-G, (Joe Broadway, Bauxite), 1965]
reprinted 5. 18. '15]
~~

saw it
before I heard it--
in the time it took
to write this
the rain had stopped

Poems for early May

Son Eric's backyard, summer '15

 

walking the Labyrinth--

at first, intent on staying

within the lines

 

May 1--

earliest we could

go barefooted

 

patio floor boards

reflecting the waining light

soaking up raindrops

 

too young

to own a cottontail

our silence

 

yellow butterfly

nose to throat

with the honeysuckle

 

along the creek bank

kudzu climbs the cottonwood--

tall weed skeletons

 

gentle shower

mixed with the smell of woodsmoke--

bird with nesting grass

PL - selections from Connecting Our Houses (1997),
MayDay-MayDay-MayDay (2003), a bird calls at dusk (2007),
along the creek bank (2005).

Winning poem in PRA Anthology contest, 2016

from Google Images

Travesty

The walking trail through Wyndham Park, with oaks
and willows, maples, sycamores and gums:
a splashy autumn show for city folks
in step with robin songs, cicada hums.
One day, sweet woodsmoke in the air, they came:
a droning, giant buzz, like screaming knives
with swishing crashes following. The lame
excuse: obliterate what threatens lives.
They cut two hundred-plus: the young, the old,
the stately, vivid trees. Mimosas spared,
their listless beanpods left to hang like cold
and desiccated tears; but trailside’s bared.
The robins, mockingbirds have taken wing
but I am safe amidst this awful thing.

When one of the state papers published poetry: a Rosa Z. Marinoni "Poem of the Week" in 1960

 

 

Yellowed, brittle fragile, the lone page from November 6, 1960 Arkansas Democrat Magazine (We didn't take the Democrat; I don't know which of my forebears saved this originallly, or even how it ended up in my collection of photos and other memorabilia.)

 

As I was "thinning" stuff so MY descendants wouldn't have to decide what to keep, I found this. Looking it over, I discovered that one of the features was "The Best in Poetry." The subhead read, "All Arkansas writers are invited to submit poems to this column. Membership in a literary organization is not requisite."

Many of today's poets will instantly recognize what I recognized. Here, let me reprint what I saw under the heading "Poem of the Week:"

 

THE GOLDEN FOOTPRINT

Give us a small and peaceful world, dear Lord,

Without detours that lead to a dead end.

A world so small that at each corner turn,

A man can find along his path a friend.

A world where women only live to love,

And man, contented with his simple lot,

Learns knowledge from his heart and not from books,

With no desire to be what he is not.

 

And then, perhaps, along the sands of Time,

Some moonlit night a traveler might see,

Instead of traffic ruts and rusted wings,

The footprint left by One from Galilee.

 

--Rosa Z. Marinoni of Fayetteville

 

She is the poet responsible for the present-day National Poetry Day celebration in Arkansas.

How appropriate this "find" is for April's celebration of National Poetry Month.

An Ogden Nash poem for spring

photo by sister Carolyn Hoggard

 

THE HAT'S GOT MY TONGUE

 

A girl, oh a girl is a wonderful thing,

And so I am happy to say is spring,

And a girl in spring is the absolute works

But for one conspicuous item that irks:

That hat.

 

A girl in spring is a skylark's hymn,

An evenson in a cloister dim,

A moon in June and a dove in love,

 But why the discordant detail above:

That hat?

 

The crocuses put their best feet foremost,

The softest, tenderest raindrops pour most,

Nature walks forth in a robe of dawn,

And you, my love, what do you put on?

That hat.

 

Purple the lilac and green the oaks,

Is spring the time for a milliner's hoax?

Your taste, methought, simply hibernated;

But what did I get when for spring I waited?

That hat.

 

A girl, of a girl is a wonderful thing,

And so I am happy to say is spring,

And you are what I adore the sight of;

That hat is what I adore you in spite of--

Take it off and let's jump on it!

from Good Intentions, p.39                                                                                       (Google Image)



Post-Easter poems--old and new

from the back yard: what I call Yellow Rose of Texas

 

Porch swing

after swinging

around the yard taking

pictures of violets, iris,

and Greye.

3.30.'16

~~

 

Stump-bed

iris: slender
purple girls too late for

this year's Easter parade. Still, they

showed up.

3.30.'16
~~

 

Sideways

in the porch swing

in shorts & flipflops, I

luxuriate in the thunder

and rain.

 

But when

lightning flashes

close, I hightail it in

to the safety of four walls and

a roof.

[2015]

~~

 

last day of March--

the wintered-over houseplants

blowing in the wind

[2002]

from along the pasture fence, 2005

~~