Nature & Weather
garden row 7

I have a new poem, LUNAR ECLIPSE, written Oct 27, 2004, at the bottom of this page.

This first poem is not even mine. My daughter, Monica wrote it as a 6th grade school project. At my urging, she reluctantly entered it in an Ohio Poetry Day contest. She beat me at my own game! She won first prize! At this stage of the game, I had yet to get even an Honorable Mention!

COLORS OF SPRING
First Prize Winner of VWG Student Award, OHIO POETRY DAYS 1988

by Monica D Maurey

Spring is RED
like the snow shovels
all packed away.

Spring is ORANGE
like the tulips
blooming in rows.

Spring is YELLOW
bright like the sun
for warmer days.

Spring is GREEN
like the treetops and
grass, growing long, ready to cut.

Spring is BLUE
like the violets
growing wild in bunches.

Spring is INDIGO
like the trilling bird
indigo bunting.

Spring is PURPLE
like the mulberries
plump and delicious.


This was inspired by the many sparrows I see chasing each other into traffic, often being narrowly missed by cars including my own. One day I saw a sparrow get knocked to the ground. After tumbling to a stop at the roadside, it flew off in a few seconds!

SUICIDAL SPARROWS (haiku)
A bird frantic in wing'd chase
in line of car-fire
bumper-tumbles and flies off.

3 October 2001


These are photos of the same scene taken in different years, looking west from my house to the garage. The first one, definately a winter shot. The one on the right was taken one October, when my sweet gum tree was just turning to fall color. Obviously we had an early snow that year. Take a closer look: Busy Lizzies (summer impatians) are still in bloom in the baskets hanging from the tree!

MARCH SNOW
4 Mar 2016

February has passed. Past, I thought, were cold days
and nights. So close to Spring
and snow springs from nowhere!
Snow marches in and throws a blanket on my trees
and any plans I may have that don't
include coats, mittens or boots.
So, I'm booting ou out, March Snow.
March, snow, march!

MOURNING SNOW
I love snow, and this describes how I feel when it begins to melt:

The snow was here for more than a week.
That hasn't happened in years.
Now it's raining--sustainance is bleak
The rain can mingle with my tears.


WINTER'S JEWELS
Honorable Mention in one of the OHIO POETRY DAYS contests. I think it was 1988.

Silver trees and platinum grass
Droplets on branches like beads of glass
Reflecting the sunlight in blinding rays
On one of winter's brightest days.

The great oak displays its coppery leaves
While silver and crystal cloak other trees.
Frozen fringe on the bottoms of signs
Have the polished gleam of silver tines.

Cattails encased in frozen sheathes
Sway stiffly from footholds in crystal wreathes.
The tree-tops, gleaming with frosty gems,
Begin to drip, from the sun on them.

The sun which gives this bejeweled glow
Will be the force to end this show.
Tho' it's beauty gives joy 'til the morrow,
When the freeze is over, there'll be no sorrow!


WHERE SNOWMEN LIVE

Snowmen tend to live
on lawns with very little snow.
Grass and leaves are visible
in snowballed paths
where snow was rolled into balls of desired sizes.

Snowmen tend to live
on lawns with little snow
unless of course
they were conceived elsewhere.
For the snow from whence they came
is their lifesblood, so to speak.
Snowmen tend to live on lawns with little snow.
1 Jan 1994


UNDER GOD'S EYE

A walk in the wood
does my soul good.
The sun on my cheek
makes me fell meek
Under God's eye.
He draws me nigh
when all around me
His world I can see.

As I walk by the beck*       *brook
I feel a mere speck,
as a gnat on the nose
--of God, I suppose!
A walk in the rain
sets off in my brain
"All I am and own
comes from God alone."
23 Nov 1993

Beginning Birder
3/14/99

Baffled by a bufflehead!
Hoodwinked by a hooded merganser!
I look them up in the field guide, and
They've flown before I find the answer!

A redhead duck, or canvasback;
Make me invoke the hocus-pocus.
To quickly tell which one I see
I have to get the scope in focus!

So many sea gulls look alike
Soaring in the blue.
They land and leave so quickly
I can only misconstrue!

Black-capped or Carolina
Chickadee, I wonder!
Flitting in and out of view
While through the field-guide I blunder!

What kind of wren?
Was that a sparrow?
My list is full of question marks--
So I will try again tomorrow!


CROWS IN FANCY DRESS
Honorable Mention by the Evan Lodge & Ralph Hartzell Memorial, OHIO POETRY DAYS 1992

Dandily dressed, in all but spats
wearing blue conical hats
held on tight by black chin straps
they play the games of comical chaps.

'Hands' clasped behind their backs
Suited up in blue, white and black.
They clench a seed between their feet
And hammer it open with handy beaks.

They bob and dance and flit about
And with a raucous, joyous shout
Call "HEY! Jay! HEY! Jay! HEY!
To everyone they meet all day.

All spiffed up in fancy dress
To look at them, you'd never guess--
Except for their boist'rous way--
Their family name is Corvidae.

Crow or Raven never looked so dapper
In basic black from tail to capper
Than their Blue Jay cousins. BUT CONFESS!
They ARE just crows in fancy dress!


HAIKU 1

Roadside crows feeding
On carrion, pay no mind
To passing traffic.


HAIKU 2

Looking like sparrows
That have been dipped in red paint
They are House Finches.


PIGEONS ON PATROL

The daffodils wave a friendly "Hi"
To pigeons strutting arrogantly by.

Here they come, as if manor-born
Patrolling my bird-table for daily corn.

But no one really minds their presence,
Ignoring their royal impertinence.

Juncos and finches flit and flinch,
Giving them berth, though barely an inch!

Though a bully in an affable mixture,
The pigeon is welcomed as one of God's creatures.
1993

Lunar Eclipse - October 27, 2004

Look at the moon up in the fork of a tree!
It looks like that ol' moon is trying to hide from me!
Can you see the moon hiding behind a cloud?
That big ol' round-faced moon, like a light behind a shroud!
Oh, where's that moon... the sky has lost its light!
She's really hiding now... it's like deepest dark of night!
Once more I see the moon up there in the sky.
I don't know why she tried to hide, 'cause that ol' moon can fly!