Before the snow – NaPoWriMo Day 11

New Leaves

After a dry, breezy week and weekend with yard work and new leaves on the bushes, Monday finds us damp and misty, with light rain and snow from late this afternoon through Tuesday night. Welcome moisture after the dry grass and carrying water in a cup to pour around the emerging wildflower plants.

 
 

new leaves garbed in green
unfold into warm sunlight
despite rising winds

tomorrow night’s soon enough
to doze under falling snow

 
[tanka.] Copyright © 2020-04-11, by Lizl Bennefeld.

Saturday afternoon thoughts

tulips emerging from beneath autumn's fallen leaves
Tulips in March, 2021-03-25

winter’s end
watching for springtime
new tulips

Copyright © 2021-03-27, by Lizl Bennefeld.

sentries on alert
crows in the highest branches
sunrise gathering

[haiku]. Copyright © 2021-03-27, by Lizl Bennefeld.

long-neglected bricks
melting ice and acid moss
useless…thrown away

people die, cities moulder
all will vanish in the dust

[tanka]. Copyright © 2021-03-27, by Lizl Bennefeld.

unopened books
left to gather dust
or burn for heat
how does one build the future
as all knowledge dies in flames

[tanka]. Copyright © 2021-03-27, by Lizl Bennefeld.

faces and voices
people that I’ll never touch
people whom I love

feelings never recognized
fill my mind and heart with light

Copyright © 2021-03-27, by Lizl Bennefeld.

bitter winds rage
cold ground beneath my feet
just beyond the door
orange tulips trust the spring
to make way for fragrant flowers

[tanka]. Copyright © 2021-03-27, by Lizl Bennefeld.

 

Weekend Coffee Share, 2021-03-05

daily walk
smell of rain
flowers nod their heads
robins call cheer-up
hidden paths
two rainbows

Copyright © 2021-02-27, by Lizl Bennefeld.

The end of a long week. Last weekend and Monday, the first of March, I enjoyed my busy schedule. As I mentioned early last weekend, February is National Haiku Writing Month (nahaiwrimo), and I attended both the Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon haiku poetry readings via Zoom. Between the two sessions, I read seven haiku that I wrote during February 2021. I saw again several poets I know from the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association (SFPA, lifetime member). I think that I would like to meet online with them and others more often than I have in the past. While I do not feel equal to extensive involvement in organizations, anymore, the social interaction is something I believe I’m still up to.

On Monday evening, I enjoyed a celebration of Saint David’s Day held by Jo Walton and friends online that featured two sessions of musical performances and poetry readings by various participants. St. David is the Patron Saint of Wales. (My Owen ancestors left Wales to settle in upper New York, I think, in the mid-1600s.)

Since then, I have been relaxing. Catching up on sleep and solitude. Reading a lot and napping with the Scampers. The dogs enjoy curling up on the footrest of my recliner, but if I turn over too often, they get down from the chair and move under the footrest, and so I have to be careful, getting up.

The weather, here, has taken a turn toward the warm. The snow is rapidly melting, and the air quality has disimproved, again. Supposedly, it will clear up over the weekend. I should have grabbed one of my cotton face masks on my way back to my chair, Right now, Thaddeus has settled on my legs, again, and so I may just take another nap.

I look forward to the coming weekend for more than improved air quality. Tomorrow afternoon, there is a social hour on Zoom, again, with Liz Danforth and patrons from across the globe. And I look forward to meeting for worship, which I did not attend, last weekend, in favor of the NaHaiWriMo poetry readings. I do hope there such gatherings at the end of next February, also. Enjoyed it.

This past week, I have reread books by Steven Gould that I have not looked at for a long time. That is, I had no electronic editions: Exo and Impulse. Also, I am rereading the last two books in L.E. Modesitt Jr.’s Imager Portfolio series. Al bought a set of headphones for me for my computer, and so I went online to listen again to more recent works of Tokio Myers on his YouTube channel. Lovely stuff, but I find I must turn off the pulsing lights added to some of the pieces. Aside from classics, my husband’s musical tastes and mine don’t match up. With the headset, I can turn up the volume.

I have made more space on this website and hope to do more of my blogging here, again, rather than on the WordPress blog.

I’m happy that you’ve stopped in. I look forward to looking in on many of the other Weekend Coffee Share posts, this weekend.

Best wishes,
Lizl

P.S. Natalie at Natalie the Explorer is our current host for weekend coffee share. Her post for this week may be found here,  https://natalietheexplorer.home.blog/2021/03/05/doors-in-morocco/, along with the InLinkz link party link for this weekend.

why would you weep?

In Memory

side by side
their urns and ashes
not long parted
they are not in the ground
they’ve moved on to forever

the gravestones
memories of happy times
and also grief
the joy of resurrection
their never–ending love

Copyright © 2020-12-11, by Liz Bennefeld.

Photo © by Liz Bennefeld,

Celebrating the anniversary of Father’s birthday on Saturday. He would have turned 104. He thought that 100 years was overly long. I wonder, you two, if you still do something special together on the Special Days. Dinner and dancing with friends? Just curious…

Day 29 – On the occasion | Poem a Day (NaNoWriMo)

dragonfly on a Sweet William flower
dragonfly


BIRTHDAYS

measuring time—
twenty-five or thirty-some years
yet to go … or less
looking at past records
of family births and deaths

my dad felt a hundred years
was too long to stick around for
my mother thought that ninety-four
was quite a bit too short
neither was pleased

don’t know what I’ll think
when my world and I transform
when time becomes eternity
maybe I’ll notice, or perhaps I’ll
forget what came before

Copyright © 2019-11-29, by Liz Bennefeld. All rights reserved.