Avocet The Weekly
Issue No. 7
| January, 30 - 2013
Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
Ice Skating
Will I go ice skating or will I not? Yes if it’s cold, or no if it’s hot.
The tip of an ice skate is called a pick, And maybe, just maybe, I can do an ice skating trick.
Maybe when I’m older I will learn how to twirl. Right now if I stay on my feet, I’m a pretty lucky girl.
Like Cinderella, I hope the ice skates will slip on my feet And on the ice rink a new friend I will meet.
My friends are invited - I hope they will come. We’ll skate until sunset and have lots of fun!
Ellie Alloway peter@avocetreview.com Ellie Alloway is a neighbor of Peter Leverich. She is a pretty third grader, just 8 years old. Please write an email to Peter to say Hi and to let our young poet know how impressive of a poem this is for someone so young.
“The earth has music for those who listen.” - George Santayana
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January 30, 2013 - Issue No. 7
Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
WINTER STORM Outside wind blasts rain against my windows, sky tears roll down the glass. In the village below lighted panes waver like candles in early morning darkness.
Inside I touch match to wicks in carved glass votives. Flames sway in crystal cups like trees bending in winter’s fury.
What stirs beyond our knowing announces itself in motion.
Laura Bayless ctblaura@redshift.com
“For me writing is like breathing. I could not live without breathing and I could not live without writing.” - Pablo Neruda January 30, 2013 - Issue No. 7
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Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
Solstice Song
Shortest day, Longest night. Winter chill, Frosty bite. Candles lit, Voices strong. Global peace, Solstice song. Bridget Magee bonbons.bridget@gmail.com “Human nature seems to me like the Alps. The depths are profound, black as night, and terrifying, but the heights are equally real, uplifted in the sunshine.” - Emily Green Balch
“You Got Me Babe” I patted one side of my head and snow fell out the other ear. When I’m thinking about my youth, About skiing, It is always winter. I liked turning fast past trees so that I could almost die Like Sonny Bono. I could say to the frozen universe, “You got me babe.” There is something warm about a blanket of cold snow. I snuggle up in a drift and go to sleep for twenty-four hours. When I wake up I am a new day. Perhaps even a new month. I am the snow storm that you don’t see outside your window. I am the season that forgot to change because I am in love With the way frost bites when it is hungry for your company. David Lawrence awesomelawrence@aol.com
“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, “This is what it is to be happy.” - Sylvia Plath
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January 30, 2013 - Issue No. 7
Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
Green tousled weeds Green tousled weeds on the surface of black, rich, moist soil, nature’s thick, rich cream. Bedded bulbs still sleep, winter cool refreshes, grey and rain washed small stones that speckle the black soil, and polished green leaves. Some bulb tips show, and green tousled weeds. Michael E. Stone stone.michael.e@me.com “I like it when a flower or a little tuft of grass grows through a crack in the concrete. It’s so heroic.” - George Carlin
EXALTATION OF STILLNESS Before this afternoon’s interrupted thaw, crystal daggers released their snowflake essence; the flow now waits, poised and opaque. In a muted and brilliant landscape, feather ice on crusted snow tells of fast-moving rabbits. Fog settles among iced branch tips, to linger at dawn in delicate hoarfrost. Like a change of constellations, the song of a summer coyote becomes the cold sound of an owl, and though I stand here in the bristling chill to receive an exaltation of stillness, I gladly inhale that echoing call. Kate Marsh copelandmarsh@centurytel.net January 30, 2013 - Issue No. 7
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Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
An earlier version appeared as “No Cabin Fever Here” in Appaloosa Flanks (Finishing Line Press, 2012) “Be careful not to confuse a clearing in the forest for being out of the woods.”
Winter Bears hibernate, seduced by the insistence of stark hills and frozen ponds. My heavy clothing fatigues, deters the mere effort of getting from here to somewhere else. I move like a large stocky animal considering the enticing whispers of hibernation. Winter grey dampens dawn, silences oranges and yellows, pinks and purples, late night storms cloak the world in cold crystal. Time stands still. Trees freeze in tangled designs, lean away from the relentless wind, the twig crackling chill. I push each day aside like a calendar page, looking for the glossy photo of a purple crocus knowing I’ll find it when the days get longer and the shadows move, when the birds sing their chatter and buds swell on the dogwood.
Susan B. Auld suauld@yahoo.com
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.” - Rachel Carson, Silent Spring -6-
January 30, 2013 - Issue No. 7
Weekly Avocet - www.avocetreview.com
From those of our own: Please check out Gary Every’s two videos on Petroglyphs, Native American Rock Art throughout Arizona. Wonderful. There are poems to be written after viewing these two videos. (20 minute running time) http://youtu.be/XsrlzXO1VRM http://youtu.be/5jnAgsR0r-E Please check out Daryl Nielsen’s blog bear creek haiku - poetry, poems and info. He wrote a nice piece about our Weekly Avocet on January 23, 2013. Link: http://bearcreekhaiku.blogspot. com/. We 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, sent in one nature winter-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
January 30, 2013 - Issue No. 7
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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 winter-themed poetry for 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 fine to send. • Please always put your name and email address under your work, thank you.
I love getting poems sent to my computer. What a great way to start any day. A wonderful website is Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, every day one poem and lots of Art history. Please check it out: http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/ I start everyday reading it, great fun! Hope to see you next week on Wednesday, thank you! Be well, keep warm, Charles Portolano Editor of the Avocet If you want off of this list, please send an e-mail to cportolano@hotmail.com and write “unsubscribe” in the subject line.