Welcoming Spring

I have two spring poems for you this week.

It occurred to me to share my winning limerick from March/April 2017 Saturday Evening Post limerick contest. Submitted limericks must respond to a provided visual from the Saturday Evening Post front page archives. The image for this particular contest was from the March 7th, 1925 edition of the magazine, provided by Paul Stahr, entitled "Kissing Winter Goodbye." It made a great prompt.  My limerick is as follows:

A nymph in the first blush of spring

Spied a snowman and fancied a fling

But her kiss was his last

He was melting, and fast

While pondering love and its sting.

You can see Paul Stahr's image and my limerick here: 
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/06/marchapril-2017-limerick-laughs-winner-runners/

If you like writing limericks to a visual prompt, I recommend this contest. Learn more at this link: https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/limerick-contest/

The second poem was also written to a visual prompt.  Below is a beautiful flower called bloodwort, a member of the poppy family with a bright red root. More about lovely bloodworts here.  Laura Shovan provided the photo for Margaret Simon's weekly challenge "This Photo Wants to Be a Poem," and it prompted me to write the following:

A dainty face peeks

beneath a bleached linen cap

angel feather gown

© Karen Eastlund

I hope you've enjoyed these nods to spring. Aren't we glad it's here?  

Thanks to the amazing Amy Ludwig VanDerwater for hosting today. She is writing poems based on proverbs.  Maybe you want to try that also! Find her post and links to all the participants at The Poem Farm  Have fun writing, and have a good week.

I love this photo...

I came across this photo and had to write about it. Plus, I'm reading a piece by John McPhee about a NJ wildlife officer who tags bears and follows them, keeps them out of trouble, teaches people how to live with bears in the same habitat.  But what do you think?  Maybe this is a little too close?

 

Anyway, here's my offering du jour...

Hiya, Honey! 

You're so sweet! 

Is that chocolate in your pocket?

I may be short, but I'm very interested

And hungry. Oh so hungry.

Got food?

I love to share

No?

Bummer!

Maybe you could help me

Find my mama

I feel a bit growly

Grrrrr! Grrr!

© Karen Eastlund

It is Poetry Friday, which means that lots of poetry buffs are posting at our host blog, which today is Poetry for Children co-authored by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.  Please stop by and see what they have cooked up for you. (That's a little humor, but you'll have to visit them to find out why.)  

We switch to Daylight Savings Time this weekend... spring can't be far behind.

Ashes

The imposition of ashes has been observed in RC churches for many many years, but not so long ago it began to be offered in my church also, a protestant church. Some were uncomfortable with it, but I was open to the experience. I wanted to see how it felt, how I reacted. 

Below is a poem that I'm just drafting. I will want to come back to it, but I offer this much to you for this month's consideration.

Ashes

They crumble 

And sift through fingers

Soft as feathers

A mote in the eye

They are the leavings

Cindery grey

Greasy black

A bit of grit

They surprise me

the way they seep 

into my wrinkles

my skin -- alien

They speak of deep grief

Utter hopelessness

This little pile of elements

fragments on the wind

They lack spark

They mark an end -- yet

I come willingly

Remembering

They mark truth

They slow my breath

They lower my eyes

They repeat

We all encounter them

Walk through them

And with God's grace

Some day  

                  again   

                             arise

© Karen Eastlund

Thanks to Ruth Hersey for hosting today and giving us this topic. It challenged me and I almost skipped, but perhaps the ashes themselves enabled this bud.  Find other posts in our spiritual journey group here.

Duality

 It's that time of year when the weather is all over the board. Some days in the 60's, some nights in the teens. In between is a rollercoaster of everything: sun, clouds, rain, snow, furious winds. Crazy! 

I feel like I'm all over the board also. I can't concentrate. My mind flits from one thing to another, much like the weather. One morning I took our visiting canine out for a walk and it felt like a lovely spring day. By the time I headed home the wind had picked up, the temperature was dropping, clouds were rolling in and I found myself hurrying toward my front door.  An event later that day spawned the first poem below.

I decided to try a poetic form I had not tried... the triolet.  Here are two that crawled out of my pen. Once I put them on the same page they seemed to reflect the hot and cold duality of our weather as it zigzags its way toward spring.

I'm mesmerized by falling snow

Today high winds whipped up a squall

Bright sun and calm before it though

I'm mesmerized by falling snow

A few stray flakes took aim below

When next I looked, a frenzied brawl

I'm mesmerized by falling snow

Today high winds whipped up a squall

© Karen Eastlund

A flock of robins found my yard

They feast on holly berries here

Their visit's like a greeting card

A flock of robins found my yard!

A note of mirth, a spring vanguard

A lilting call that rings with cheer

A flock of robins found my yard

They feast on holly berries here

© Karen Eastlund

Image by Linda Mitchell

It's Poetry Friday at The Miss Rumphius Effect .  Thanks to Tricia for hosting, and for inviting us all to try a new poetic challenge next month.  Find her challenge at the link above.

Stay warm, stay safe, and have a good one!

Some winter cheer...

Thanks to Linda for hosting the Friday Poetry Friday gathering today. You can see her heart collection and poetry, and follow links to other bloggers at TeacherDance. Thanks for hosting, Linda, and Happy Valentine's Day to you. 

Have you noticed how fast time slips by?  How crazy that it's almost Valentine's Day.  Here are a couple of heartwarming images...

My sweet granddaughter...

 

New Snow

I love it

So white and glittery

And it crunches

Under my boots

I made this snow girl 

She wanted a pink hat

And I made her a heart

We both smiled

© Karen Eastlund

Best wishes to all for a lovely week.

A heart collage in the spirit of the month...

We had snow...

 All the weather stations reported the big nor'easter that came up the coast last weekend, so I'm sure you heard about it. We got a little snow and wind, but the main storm missed us.  Can't complain. However, even a little snow can change the landscape, as well as one's outlook, and we enjoyed our time outside shoveling and bantering with neighbors. Seems our neighbors become extra neighborly when it comes to snow. One guy got a new snowblower, so he took care of a lot of us. Wonderful! And the wind left this portrait in our yard:

I love this beautiful snow poem by Longfellow:

Snow-Flakes

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - 1807-1882

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Out of the bosom of the Air,
    Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the woodlands brown and bare,
    Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
      Silent, and soft, and slow
      Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take
    Suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession,
      The troubled sky reveals
      The grief it feels.

This is the poem of the air,
    Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
    Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
      Now whispered and revealed
      To wood and field.

Of course I can't compete with Longfellow, but his poem connects snow with grief. On a lighter note, this photo of my grandson begged for a poem...

In cold wet snow

My dad and I

Rolled and packed

This little snow guy

Stuck eyes and arms

And stump nose in

His Christmas tree hair

Still makes me grin

© Karen Eastlund

Wherever you are, in snow or not, I wish you a week full of grins. 

Image by Linda Mitchell

As usual, it's Poetry Friday. Thanks to Elisabeth for hosting, join the gathering here.  

You gotta have heart...

Welcome to February's Spiritual Journey post. Our host is Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise.  Her prompt for us is "heart."  One definition for heart is courage, reminding me that the word for heart in French is coeur. Synonyms for courage include moxie, mettle, and spunk.  

"You gotta have heart... miles and miles and miles of heart..." Remember that oldie? Listen here.

If anyone had heart, it was my sister Virginia. She was diagnosed with MS when she was 19, but for the next 50 years she refused to let it define her. She was an excellent student, specializing in botany with post grad work on lichens, and later taught high school biology. By her late 50s she was living alone in Minneapolis near a mall where she liked to shop in her electric wheelchair. On one cold excursion, her chair hit a bump in the sidewalk and she lurched forward onto the frozen ground. Fortunately, a compassionate driver stopped and got her back into her chair. Soon she got a LifeLine, and it came in handy when her chair jettisoned her headfirst into her closet. With no way to get up, she pushed the button and waited. When I registered concern she assured me that the rescuing firefighters were so handsome..."hot"... that she might need rescuing again. 

Virginia's high school photo

Virginia never gave up. Several of us had to talk her out of an ill-conceived plan to go to Gambia with her attendant, but years after that she managed to go to Mexico for a weekend to attend a wedding. Her judgment was clouded; she asked to be taken into the ocean. How anyone would keep her afloat was not her concern, she just wanted the experience. Thank goodness no one indulged that fantasy.

Even when she seemed reckless, I admired her willingness to take a risk and have an adventure. Many in her condition would have confined themselves completely. Virginia had the heart to live. She gave life her all, and she did so with few complaints.

Virginia's birthday is this week. I'll be thinking of her, and along with sadness there will be plenty of pride and more than a few giggles. What a legacy she left behind! What heart!!!

A synonym for moxie is grit, and I've come to love this song called Grit and Grace:

John 16:33  

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”