The Sea and Haiku for One Deep Breath

This is the view from the living room and deck in the beach house we are vacationing in for the next week. It's really wonderful here at this time of year. Yesterday was rainy but lovely. Otherwise we've had sun and temperatures much warmer than we expected. It's been a very relaxing, lazy time ... walks on the beach with the dogs first thing in the morning, riding my bike, naps, reading and just day dreaming. It's been hard for me to think about my blog, especially because it's been hard to get photos up ... don't know what their problem is but it's annoying. And annoying isn't allowed here at the beach.

I did write a quick haiku for One Deep Breath and you can find more here.

I

watch
the sea
spewmy waves
a lone gull diving
pelicans dipping in the surf

Hopefully I'll be back with more before we leave this gorgeous place.

River Mist

This is what the river looks like these cool fall mornings. Tomorrow morning we will leave this behind for a week or so and head over to the ocean for our annual retreat on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The summer folks will be gone, most of the shops closed and there will be few people on the beach. Our daughter and grandkids will come a week from today and we'll build sand castles and have a good time. We rent a lovely ocean front home right on the ocean with room for all of us.

Hopefully, I'll be able to send you some images and maybe a haiku or two while I'm there if our internet connection is working.

Hope everyone has a peaceful weekend!

Autumn Palette ... for Poetry Thursday

The Rivanna River, early October, 2006

Autumn is such a nostalgic time for me. It is a time for remembering all of life's gifts, especially the gift of a life partner who, like a fine wine, only grows more wonderful with age.

Autumn Palette
for Bill

Across the river trees flare
yellow orange gold
the flow of water a painting
awash in late day light
ever changing in intensity
as ruffles of wind eddy the surface
invisible fingers at play

A walk we took years ago
before we became us
in woods of scarlet sugar maples
Vermont air crisp and clear
the lake before us blue shimmering
deep and endless as the sky
we wandered under
projecting our future together
on the white canvas
of a passing cloud

We were young and limber
ready to climb the mountains
flame red in the distance
never imagining this day
you and I burnished by time
settled on a river bank
reflecting in October light

jzr

Big Blue ... for One Deep Breath

After three days of gray clouds and flooding rains (5 1/4 " ), the sun came out yesterday, revealing one of the most gorgeous October days I can remember. Big Blue, as we call a our resident Great Blue Heron, perched on our dock taking in the warmth of the day.

I wrote the following for One Deep Breath's prompt, to contribute something about the countryside. Find more here.

big blue preens
gossamer plumage
at his feet frogs forage
dappled morning light plays
in groves of scarlet maples

The Body .... for Poetry Thursday

from Nicolaides The Natural Way To Draw, © 1942

This weeks prompt on Poetry Thursday is ... the body. So I dug out this mrs heartwell poem that "fits perfectly."


body tone

ignoring fleshy overflow
mrs heartwell wriggles
into tights and leotard
drives ten miles at six a m
to the fitness farm
where she huffs and puffs
lifts weights
attempts pushups
watches her body
bounce across glass

eardrums protected
with plugs of foam
she can’t hear
the instructor
barking commands
only the beat bumping
from speakers overhead
she just follows
the crowd pressing
harder and harder
fading in and out
like the dark

jzr

Books and Reading .... for One Deep Breath

Reading is one of my most favorite things and I'm a bookaholic. I cannot go into a bookstore without buying just one more. If this addiction were to alcohol and drugs, I'd be one sick puppy! But thankfully it's just books!! So my response to One Deep Breath's prompt to books and reading was quick and simple. Go here for more on the subject.

the book on the table
tempts me with its pages
delicious words
capture my senses
meaning ambrosial

reading through the night
story binds me to the past
the sweet history of breathing
flavors the dark with love
no time for sleep

i’ve drifted away
on somebody else’s raft
words keep me afloat
clinging to meaning
i survive an angry sea

jzr

Fall

The only fall colors here right now are in the garden. Sedums and fall mums in lovely colors remind us that tree leaves will soon start turning. Here in "warm" Virginia, it could be a while. And since it was a droughty summer, there may be little to none. Another week or so should tell the tale.

In the photo above, the darker burgundy flowers are Autumn Joy Sedums and start out a lovely pale pink, slowly darkening over a month to this deep, rich color. I don't know the name of the pink ones in this photo but they just opened this past week and are also Sedums.

I wrote the following poem a long time ago and it's about autumn in Vermont where we lived for well over 18 years. In the last 5 or so years we were there, we pressed our own cider from a small orchard of very old apple trees that produced several varieties of the best apples I've ever tasted. We also raised Romney sheep, angora goats and chickens. We were definately hippies and depended on the land and our livestock for much of what we ate. But I digress, here is the poem and yes, it often did snow in October!


Fall

The last of the crop dislodged
I gather windfalls firm and rimy
Rake the bruised into piles
Where pincered earwigs gather
Pulp ferments in the sun
Droning yellow jackets
Sample the brew

My children pretend not to hear
When I ask for their help prefer
The rustle of leaves tumbling
and diving scatter yesterday’s work

With sharpened knife I quarter
Blushing rounds pack the barrel
To overflowing lower the plate until
It resists pressing sweet amber liquid

I’m drunk on October apples
And wood smoke swishing mare’s tails
Across a field of sky
The threat of snow my morning

jzr