I’m celebrating Earth Day with thoughts about how we can help our friend Robin. The counts of Robins are down in the cities, mainly due to cats roaming around outside and helping themselves to our fine feathered Robin friends. I found a couple articles on how we can help the Robins. This one is from Birds & Blooms and talks about “5 Ways to Create a Bird-Safe Backyard” and this one is from Journey North, on “Robin Ecology.”
ROBIN REDBREST’S HOME
For Robin Redbreast’s best conservation, begin by keeping your kitty cat tidily tucked inside.
Your curious kitty cats ground hunting palate pangs for parent Robins and baby fledglings too.
Make kitty cats home an inside purrfect palace, and Robin’s home an outside kitty cat safe-free zone.
Catherine Flynn at her blog Reading to the Core is our host for this week’s Poetry Friday roundup. For NPM Catherine has been writing poems from a wonderful book she’s been sharing, Kathryn Aalto’s WRITING WILD. I’m looking forward to the next author/poet she will share and write from.
Visit Susan Bruck’s Blog Soul Blossom Living for the NPM Kidlitosphere Roundup, and Margaret Simon’s blog Reflections on the Teche for a schedule of poets participating in the 2021 Progressive Poem.
I ‘m continually taken by our fine feathered Downy woodpecker friends. They don’t fly away and come back, but take residence here all winter long. Last week I heard an unfamiliar bird call I was trying to place and eventually discovered it was the Downy woodpecker. I’m still not sure if it was the Dad or the offspring, but I have a hunch it was Dad, and he sure captured my attention…
BACKYARD DOWNY WOODPECKER
Persistent call, baby pecker or parent? Perhaps baby but your knock, knock, knocking gives dad downy away.
Where are you? I search, and search, and search… April leaves still sparse, aids tracking your location. Finally—I find you…
There you are, mottled black and white beauty splashed with red crescent-ring round your head’s edge. Compact, fluffy-feathered contrasts of nature’s perfection.
I spy you, pecking in that uncanny-curve of your tree. Using your Teflon-tough weathered beak to break away bark and dig out delectable treats!
Binoculars bring us closer together, topflight doorstep view for doting on you. Camera can’t telephoto and capture your grandness but my mind’s eye keeps you in my imagination.
I thought I’d also share Margarita Engle’s poem, DRUM DREAM GIRL. It ‘s drumming and booming, ties in with a woodpecker, and she has a woodpecker in her poem clacking away.
DRUM DREAM GIRL By Margarita Engle
On an island of music in a city of drumbeats the drum dream girl dreamed
of pounding tall conga drums tapping small bongó drums and boom boom booming with long, loud sticks on big, round, silvery moon-bright timbales.
But everyone on the island of music in the city of drumbeats believed that only boys should play drums
so the drum dream girl had to keep dreaming quiet secret drumbeat dreams.
At outdoor cafés that looked like gardens she heard drums played by men but when she closed her eyes she could also hear her own imaginary music.
When she walked under wind-wavy palm trees in a flower-bright park she heard the whir of parrot wings the clack of woodpecker beaks the dancing tap of her own footsteps and the comforting pat of her own heartbeat.
At carnivals, she listened to the rattling beat of towering dancers on stilts
Jama Rattigan at her blog Jama’s Alphabet Soup is our hostess with the mostest for this week’s Poetry Friday roundup, thanks for hosting Jama! Jama’s laid a festive table for us with mouth watering cake, fruits, and tea! She’s also serving up a poem about poetry from UK’s past Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, be sure to stop by!
Visit Susan Bruck’s Blog Soul Blossom Living for the NPM Kidlitosphere Roundup, and Margaret Simon’s blog Reflections on the Teche for a schedule of poets participating in the 2021 Progressive Poem.
Spring plants are emerging, and I’m waiting on my backyard milkweed to push-on-through the soil… And then monarchs come.
This week I’m celebrating with Spring poems that I’ve been writing for NPM. I’m also including my Spring Milkweed oil painting that I’ve been working on outside this last week, when weather cooperates…
SPRING’S LAUNCH
Junco scurries around on ground, and flies. Robins paired and already mating. Crocus spent, but striped leaves linger, daffodil dos do delight. Milkweed launch like rockets, monarch’s lay their eggs. Multiply and pollinate monarch— Please!
P.S. Would love to know what this 10 line poem, with decreasing syllable count per line from ten to one is called… Can’t seem to recall.
Here’s a few poems from this last week:
mercury thermometer watcher— warm up april. 4-2-21
night’s clouds enclose stillness—shield us till morning spring’s soft breath breathes on… 4-4-21
if it’s morning take a moment to take in birds 4-5-21
two old sisters lean inward, creating an arched canopy-filled sky with brother plum center. 4-7-21 From Margaret Simon’s THIS PHOTO WANTS TO BE A POEM prompt
roll and tumble spring filigree-green treetops, wooo muffle train along 4-8-21
The creative, multitalented poet and writer, Tabatha Yeatts at her blog Tabatha Yeatts:The Opposite of Indifference is hosting this weeks Poetry Friday roundup, thanks Tabatha! Tabatha’s sharing more bilingual poems, be sure to stop by!
Also for more poetry throughout April’s National Poetry Month stop by Susan Bruck’s blog, Soul Blossom Living for a Roundup of posts. You can also visit the Progressive Poem, a poem created over the month of April as a new poet adds a new line each day, here’s the schedule:
Happy Poetry Friday and Happy National Poetry Month!
I’m sharing all things Spring, with poems and art for the opening of National Poetry Month!
LILAC BUDS
Lilac buds prickle me alive. Spring hides inside small buds, curling inside each unfurled floweret. Waiting, waiting, waiting, for sun’s waves of warmth soaking up soil into cake-like crumbles. For green leaves inching out like instinctual inchworms methodically coiling in and out through Spring’s first velveteen-green forest field. For pointy apple green leaves dusted in red-rose-ends and multiplying each day as March marches on.
Each day more buds grace branches. Each day buds bloom into leaves. Each day more flowerets appear atop branches tips. While late afternoon catches these electrified glowing lights alighting more and more flowerets, reaching upward towards sky, outward toward you and me, and downward towards garden’s rich earth. All eagerly anticipating, ever so subtle essences of lilacs sensual lingering scents.
More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening to the trees that really gets to me. When all the shock of white and taffy, the world’s baubles and trinkets, leave
Read the rest of the poem and listen to Ada Limón recite it here.
I have a new card, Flowers Forevermore, available in my online Etsy Shop, just in time for Spring…
The card is a detail from the original artwork which will be posted soon in my Shop as an Archival Print.
Flowers Forevermore, @2021 Michelle Kogan, Watercolor and Pen. Available soon in my Etsy Shop.
Mary Lee Hahn at her blog A YEAR OF READING, is our host for this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks for hosting Mary Lee! Her post invites us to partake in National Poetry Month with the 2021 Progressive Poem, Poetry Month Project Roundup, and… She was thinking about skipping this month, but quickly decided to go with a haiku a day. Make sure you stop by for all the poetry offerings she’s sharing!
I’ve taken up the Poetry Sisters March challenge of writing a dizain poem for closing out the month of March. Look for more dizain poems with the hashtag #PoetryPals.
DIZAIN FOR SPRING
Spring springs discombobulating senses. Teasing with her summer-like advances. Boomerangs back to winter’s offenses. Snowflakes dusting down on grass and branches. Wicked-whipping-winds slow spring expanses. Robin’s chirrup draws away my doldrums, her mirth inspires a passel of poems: An ode to pass through patches in-between, dizain to rain swooshing out hum-drum-glums, and abecedarian garden’s green!
I came across a new environmental book by Kathleen Dean Moore called EARTH’S WILD MUSIC Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World. Along with the book a series of videos have been produced with readings by poets and music by different musicians. I’ve included Albatross below read by Jane Hirshfield and music by Rachelle McCabe (piano). Here’s a link for more info on the book and accompanying videos.
Sending out more heartfelt thoughts for all those taken by the shooting this week in Boulder Colorado.
Susan Bruck at her blog Soul Blossom Living is our host for this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup, be sure to stop by for more poetry offerings. Susan’s featuring descriptions and links from poets for April’s National Poetry Month. Thanks for hosting Susan, and sharing all these enticing links!
Visit Renée LaTulippe at No Water River to find out more about what Poetry Friday is.
Trying to welcome Spring, though Spring has decided to temporarily take leave, I hear she may return next week. Anyway, here’s a poem for Spring Crocus’ and a WIP watercolor with bits of white to help as it’s on Japanese Sekishu paper, and although I’ve painted with watercolor for years, painting on this paper is a new journey for me.
SPRING’S CROCUS
Crocus cups stretched toward sun and flung their petals outward— They couldn’t resist mid March’s teasing 60 degree temps. One, two, three days, and then they shut–tight as a drum. They’re holding steady, holding tight through blizzardy snow, and cold driving rain, waiting, waiting, and waiting…
But I’ll remember— Your brilliant hues of crimsons and lavenders, your sun-like central amber-yellow floweret fanning up towards sun, as if part of an Egyptian ceremony for sun god Ra, while your attending stamen stand at attention beside you. Your gently scalloped petals, reminding me of sandbar banks. Your outlined lacey edges extending tenderness to all. Your etched needle-eye-thin curving lines perhaps mother nature’s signature. Your sister shadows playfully mingling between each other. Your terra verte pin-stripped white stems flying this way and that, as uninhibited as a child. Your strong, yet elegant stalks occasionally leaning into another as if to say, come closer– it’s been such a long, long year since we last embraced… Your paper-like, lemon-yellow-white wrapper each holding its own unique shape, sloughing ever so slightly as now its completed protecting it’s flourishing flower.
If only one or two more breaths could breathe your natural beauty, perhaps one or two could sleep more soundly or breathe more fully or even consider another other than oneself…
I have also been thinking about the recent attack and hate crimes in Atlanta Georgia, and wrote this golden shovel poem from an article I read about it in the New York Times.
ACTIONS AGAINST HATE CRIMES
As Covid continues up and down, this scourge of slaying Asian Americans is another call for Americans to reflect and not just carry on, to take action and not just retreat within ourselves. Efforts for an all world recovery become thwarted when Asian Americans are attacked with biased hate crimes by American citizens. This problem needs action now, “this is” our “American Problem.”
Linda Baie, friend, and wielding wordsmith poet, is our generous host for this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup at her blog Teacher Dance, thanks for hosting Linda! Linda is sharing a dress rehearsal for Spring, and also a poem on time. Be sure to drop by her blog for many more poetry offerings.
Visit Renée LaTulippe at No Water River to find out more about what Poetry Friday is.
My poem this week, a haiku within my WIP drawing came from a contrapuntal poem I am working on. Both of these poems are about Beauty, and about being/taking in time, allowing ourself time, and connections with our past, present, and future while still in our present time. I’m focusing again on a woman for Women’s History Month, and with this end, my drawing–both art and poem echos back to the New York artist/poet Florine Stettheimer. I’m particularly attracted to the exciting way she used pinks in her paintings.
converse with beauty… hold past, present, and future in time’s presence…
Here’s one of Florine Stettheimer’s poems which may be included in a reissued collection of her poetry called Crystal Flowers: Poems and a Libretto . This collection of poems was originally assembled by her sister Ettie Stettheimer after Stettheimer’s death.
For a long time I gave myself To the arrested moment To the unfulfilled moment To the moment of quiet expectation I painted the trance moment The promise moment The moment in the balance In mellow golden tones… Then I saw
On another note, I have a new session of Online, Spring Art Classes beginning in April. I’m offering classes in Figure Drawing and Painting, Watercolor, Children’s Picture Book Illustration, Pen and Ink and Watercolor, and a Poetry and Art Workshop. Visit the Evanston Art Center and Harper College Community Education for registration info and descriptions of my classes.
Heidi Mordhorst at her blog my juicy little universe is hosting this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Heidi! Heidi’s celebrating her Birthday with a few Birthday related poems, so drop in to join the celebration–Happy Birthday Heidi!
Visit Renée LaTulippe at No Water River to find out more about what Poetry Friday is.
Happy Poetry Friday and Happy Women’s History Month!
In honor of Women’s History Month, I’m sharing a golden shovel poem built from Margarita Engle’s prose piece, The Care and Feeding of Poetry, that’s featured in this months Poetry Foundation’s, Poetry Magazine. The March issue is devoted to Children’s poets and artists and is spectacular–hope you can read a copy!
POLLINATE POETRY
Come pollinate poetry, follow your heart’s passion like milkweed petals replenishing peace in pollinator’s hungry palate—self-value is center—poetry “is personal.”
Books are door-shaped portals carrying me across oceans and centuries, helping me feel less alone.
But my mother believes that girls who read too much are unladylike and ugly, so my father’s books are locked in a clear glass cabinet. I gaze at enticing covers and mysterious titles, but I am rarely permitted to touch the enchantment of words.
Poems. Stories. Plays. All are forbidden. Girls are not supposed to think, but as soon as my eager mind begins to race, free thoughts rush in to replace the trapped ones.
I’m also sneaking in a couple holiday cards for Passover and Easter that are slowly creeping up on us… both cards have poems on the back and have found homes in my Etsy shop.
Kat at her blog Kathryn Apel Children’s Author & Poet is hosting this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup, and she’s calling it a Poetry Friday Muster—as that’s the “Australian term for the American cattle round-up.” Kat’s sharing her newly released book, The BIRD in the HERD,” so mosey on over and have a look!
Visit Renée LaTulippe at No Water River to find out more about what Poetry Friday is.
For my post this week I took on the prompt that the Poetry Sisters offered,–including Laura Purdie Salas, Tanita Davis and more… To write a poem using metaphor from either the game with Metaphor Dice, or to use the online metaphor generator. I did the later as I don’t have the game yet… but it looks wonderful and I just purchased one for my niece for her birthday.
COURAGE IS A GARDEN
Courage is like a garden that keeps growing patience… Life these days can seem daunting with itty bitty roadblocks waiting to erupt into earthquakes– Enter my new iPhone that displayed a small hiccup, the speaker decided not to speak… I needed to dig down deep and uncover some courage from my garden. Very long story short with many trials and errors… Apple agreed to send a new replacement iPhone. It appeared– I backed it up– Turned it on– But… Mail didn’t work! Okay, more courage required and more trowels filled with patience. After searching online with infinitesimal results… I decided to either call my server or Apple– Apple won– Two mail accounts needed mending… One didn’t require too much courage or patience– Via screen sharing and infinite knowledge at the other end this account was revived, humming, and running. Though my second account required a bridge of courage… and, with many trials and much patience, the courageous screen-shared arrow and my deep rooted courage teamed together and came out successful at the other end. With much gratitude and many thanks, arrow and I bid adieu… And me– I’m readying for my next small roadblock by mulching in more patience…
Michelle Kogan
Enjoy this dip into Metaphor with Wynton Marsalis…
Sending a call out to Poetry Friday friends who stop by this week. I’ve been having a little trouble keeping up with Poetry Friday posts this last month, as I’ve been participating in Laura Shovan’s wonderfully rich, 9th Annual February Poetry Project, teaching, and working on a submission– so in case I missed something last week I’d love it if you’d fill me in when you drop by. Hopefully I’ll be back on track beginning in March which is almost here …
Karen at her blog Karen Edmisten, aka The Blog With the Shockingly Clever Title, is hosting this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Karen–and I think you’ve a catchy title! Karen’s prescribing a poem by Billy Collins this week, so be sure to stop by!
Visit Renée LaTulippe at No Water River to find out more about what Poetry Friday is.
