A Time of Blooms

 Happy Friday. It has been a crazy busy time here, and I've missed several Fridays. Alas!  I must make amends. And so, just to get my foot back in the door, I am posting some blooms from my garden, and some poetry to go with them.  Enjoy.

The poem I've chosen for this iris speaks to me of the May garden, which blooms gloriously and then is gone.  I wait all year for this...

Snow Geese

by Mary Oliver

Oh, to love what is lovely, and will not last!

What a task

to ask

of anything, or anyone,

yet it is ours,

and not by the century or the year, but by the hours.

Read the rest of Snow Geese HERE.

The peonies too, unfold their tight fists now with such elegance. Another of Mary Oliver's poems reminds me of this peony, her poem titled Swan, which speaks of "a perfect commotion of silk and linen."  You can read it HERE.

The peonies seem to demand some Japanese poetry... three haikus:

a rice bowl
filled to the brim
one peony
~ Buson

Dear, dear,

What a fat, happy face it has,

This peony!

– Issa

a bee

staggers out

of the peony

~Basho

My garden is doing well so far. I have hopes of peas soon, and salad turnips. More poems in the offing.

Poetry Friday is hosted this week by Patricia Franz at Reverie.  Don't miss her celebration of 40 years of marriage which includes a Doobie Brothers poem. Thanks, Patricia!

Loony

Yesterday I posted about my love of lakes and loons. When we were just starting out as a family, we lived in Minnesota, where loons are the state bird. The more I saw and heard them, the more I became enamored with them. Loony, you might say.

Laura Purdy Salas has written a beautiful book, Secrets of the Loon, which I pulled out yesterday when thinking about loons. No surprise that Laura's poetry is lovely. I especially admire these lines about the unborn chick:

"squeezed inside an olive egg,

bill meets wing meets folded leg"

To learn more about loons, look for Laura's book.  Also, don't miss this great website about loons:  www.loon.org.  

Today I'm sharing some loon poems that I started a few years ago and recently revisited. 

thanks to istockphoto for this image...

Ancient Voices

I listen for loons

For their ancient voices

Eerie and echoing 

Drenching the world with sound

Have you heard them

Wailing in raucous harmony

Shrieking in the moonlight

Yoo-hooing from lake to lake?

Have you heard

Low tender voices

Babbling with spouses

Feeding their young in the morning mist?

Like an earnest chick, I stop to listen

Spellbound, astounded 

I treasure these primal wails --

Surely they bless the north woods

© Karen Eastlund

Image by longacre at Pixabay

You can hear the many calls of loons here:  https://loon.org/the-call-of-the-loon/

Here's a little loon haiku to end the post:

Tuxedoed loons dive

Deep into crystal waters

Sushi bar below

Hooray! It is Poetry Friday...

Many thanks to Molly Hogan for hosting at Nix the Comfort Zone.  She's sharing her own fabulous baseball-related poems. You'll find links to the whole gang at her site.

Enjoy these last weeks of summer!