AVOCET The Weekly
“Nature, the manifestation of divinity.” - Joseph Campbell
Issue No. 18 | April 17 - 2013
Weekly Avocet - Issue No. 18
Sacred Spring A yellow-and-green season: Yellow of forsythia, daffodil, bee; White shell and egg yolk yellow of rebirth, renewal, embellished bread; Orange, crimson, purple rolling and running in a sea of hospitable pea green grass, Green of crocus, tulip stem, parsley, palm frond – Earth is roused from Rip Van Winkle dolor; Jerusalem, on day of pilgrimage and date harvest, Welcomed humble donkey of merciful rabbi whose gentle halo glowed At time of Passover Seder-supper preparations. A yellow-and-green season: Rejoice for slavery’s tyranny passing the crown of triumph To freedom’s honorable pate. A yellow-and-green season: Glory in second chance salvation Bequeathed by a young rav’s cleansing, humanizing gift – Azazel scapegoat sacrifice of self. A yellow-and-green season: May it never again be besmirched by bloodletting Caused by fractious sparks, insecure flares, bullying bolts! A yellow-and-green season: Sacred spring.
Barbara Hantman TCMAMCfan@aol.com
“I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.” - E.B. White -2-
Weekly Avocet - Issue No. 18
spring at last spring – the weather is warm enough for me to go outside in my wheel chair i open the back kitchen door and go out of my ramp a slight bump and I wheel down my driveway the sun warms me like a biscuit it feels so good i feel so alive again my physical disability vanishes and my ninety five years turn into twenty five cars go by on the road and some wave to me i happily wave in return my tulips and daffodils fill my heart with joy how pretty they are they also love spring i sit in the sunshine wear my small cap to shield the rays and all my bad thoughts are gone i am still alive it’s spring and I am still here. ed galling If you would like to write Ed, please email your message to me and I will get it to him. Thank you. cportolano@hotmail.com “There is no better high than discovery.” - E. O. Wilson
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Weekly Avocet - Issue No. 18
April Steps Out April steps out of its breathless shadowy earth on common ground near the blue hills and I am realizing there is no bread in the freezer my winter treasure has been squandered by my passing memory concerned only with only music and words, lost in cadenzas and flashing phrases by the rain and fog of my own imagination, still the child’s wish for first light on your threshold is on your welcome mat, I long to hear the soprano sax next door or have my new sonata ready for recital, there are showers on the cold porch,
in my bathrobe trembling like the trees in a past landscape of a Corot, I’m finding my notes in a foreign tongue on the piano, and here all familiar stuff of nature, the dead bird’s wings on watery grass, school children on ice on the indigo pond near by the woodland in the palest dawn, new poems by my sunglasses and red ink diary with a voice of memory I’m always searching for.
B. Z. Niditch bzniditch@gmail.com
“There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.” - Willa Cather
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Weekly Avocet - Issue No. 18
April 4th Today, the day Doctor King Jr. was killed in Memphis in 1968, I walked into these woods again on a warm, wonderful Spring day, have been ever since I was a young boy. My father took me here for the first time for “a trek” through the forest, taught me all the trees, plants, and about all of God’s creatures. Found my first tortoise here in the thick bush; had that tortoise for years living happily in our backyard. I remember the day JFK was killed, then Martin, and, then, Bobby walking into the silence of these woods and having the weight of those memories washed away while under the trees. How many times as a boy did I wander these woods? Got stung 31 times stepping into the mud, while playing hide and seek with older friends, into a hornets’ nest being the youngest, only seven, ran last, got stung the most. The silence stunning in its simplicity, in the shadows of the trees, I listen for a waited sound. Charles Portolano cportolano@hotmail.com “I am large, I contain multitudes.” – Walt Whitman -5-
Weekly Avocet - Issue No. 18
Reflections
Symmetrical image, above and below Stillness in water, ripples do flow How one considers life forces as one Conjured by seedlings, bathed by the sun Drought hath no weapon ‘gainst life on the pond Tempting cool water, wicks up to the frond Perhaps though in droplets, mist falls like dew Falling like teardrops obscuring your view Nurtured in silence, the rain washed away Lone tree stands sentry, while small insects play
Julie A. Dickson Jdickson55@yahoo.com Newmarket, NH
“There is new life in the soil for every man. There is healing in the trees for tired minds and for our overburdened spirits, there is strength in the hills, if only we will lift up our eyes. Remember that nature is your great restorer.” – Calvin Coolidge
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Weekly Avocet - Issue No. 18
Four and a Half Laps Four and a half laps around the pond Lie down on the ground Legs and arms stretched out Sun glowing orange against my closed eyelids Wind feels cool blowing across my face Still breathing heavy from the run Grass brown under me, a few blades flashing green Using the sun stored last year To grow again My source of energy too To run round the pond A commonality at our most elemental being Tenth day of March Redwing blackbirds trilling in the willows Open my eyes See twisted black hackberry branches Against a dark blue sky Flock of blackbirds flies on by Stand up The tree hovers over me with a vault of arched branches Held in place by five strong trunks Wind blows through my hair Then ripples brown pond water Life is here, it’s everywhere all round me And within, I grin, and run again.
Glenn Thomas Fell glennfell13@gmail.com
“All those who love Nature she loves in return, and will richly reward, not perhaps with the good things, as they are commonly called, but with the best things of this world-not with money and titles, horses and carriages, but with bright and happy thoughts, contentment and peace of mind.” - John Lubbock
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Weekly Avocet - Issue No. 18
Early Spring The sound of ice cracking The smell of melting snow Branches thickening like clenched fists flushing palest red and green A juvenile cardinal tests his mottled wings Human lips begin to upturn slightly hopeful Cindy Rickey carickey1@gmail.com “I must go to Nature disarmed of perspective and stretch myself like a large transparent canvas upon her in the hope that, my submission being perfect, the imprint of a beautiful and useful truth would be taken.” – John Updike
Neonatal Green from the black earth small seedlings peep timidly as Grevillia’s red spiders spin a wondrous net. Cool, then hot, winter’s end, summer’s birth, the trees sprout neonatal green. Michael Stone stone.michael.e@me.com “What troubles me is a sense that so many things lovely and precious in our world seem to be dying out. Perhaps poetry will be the canary in the mine-shaft warning us of what’s to come.” - Galway Kinnell -8-
Weekly Avocet - Issue No. 18
ONE of our ONE own From
P
of our own
lease check out these top 10 most beautiful tree tunnels sent in by Sharon Dennis, (sddphoto@cox.net) who took the wonderful cover for our Spring printed issue of The Avocet. Thank you Sharon for sharing this site with us.
SUPPORT NATURE’S POETS!
W
e hope we provoked you to thought; that you leave having experienced a complete emotional response to the poetry. I want to thank our poets for sharing their work with us this week. And, “Thank you for reading, dear reader!” Again, if you haven’t yet, send in one nature Spring-themed poem (please, only one) please do! Please remember it is one poem, per poet, per season for The Weekly Avocet’s submissions. Be well, see you next Wednesday Charles Portolano Editor of the Avocet, a Journal of Nature Poetry
http://www.toptenz.net/top-10-incredibly-beautiful-tree-tunnels.php There are quite a few poems to be written after viewing and reading about these tree tunnels. So let’s do another challenge, write a poem that has a tree tunnel in it, then, send it to me with Tree Tunnel Challenge in the subject line to angeldec24@ hotmail.com. I will publish them in upcoming Weekly Avocets. Please remember, previously published poems are wanted.
STAY INFORMED To know it, that you are a poet, you must write, read other poets, subscribe, buy poetry collections, and bring poetry into the lives of those who don’t know of its beauty.
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Guidelines for SUBMISSION
The Weekly Avocet every Wednesday, an e-mail of Nature Poetry • Please send only one poem, per poet, per season. Let’s do spring-themed poetry now. • Please no more than 38 lines per poem. • Please use single spaced lines. • Please use the Times New Roman 12pt. font. • Please send your submission to angeldec24@hotmail.com • Please remember, previously published poems are wanted. • Please always put your name and e-mail address under your poem. Thank you.
Avocet, a Journal of Nature Poetry Charles Portolano, Editor P.O. Box 19186, Fountain Hills, AZ 85269 Sample copy - $6 With your subscription, The Weekly Avocet, every Wednesday, is sent by e-mail to all the friends of the Avocet to read and enjoy nature poetry for the-middle-of-the-week.
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