Bring forth your colors

The mountains burst forth
With one change of season rain
In breathless color

The Storm

Invigorating
Dramatic dose of nature
Absorb the lightning
See the flanks of steaming cows
After the cooling rain ends

A Shift

Mixed dreams to come with
A modicum of the past
Therein lies content

The Quandry

The hope of the past
Returning in some measure
Is all that I have
To sustain the present day
And to face the coming years

An Interlude

This is a poem written by my father, Charles Kenneth Hinkle, about me when I was a young girl - I don't recall what the "humming tree" was then that I called him over to see, but I found another today. The blooming redbud tree in my back yard was alive with bees gathering pollen! It truly hummed.

The Humming Tree

Daddy come see
The Humming Tree!

The Humming Tree, I said,
Smiling as I tilted my head,
To fully see
The child’s glow of discovery.
Yes Daddy!
It’s as bright as the sun
And hum talks for fun.
It dances its leaves
As it talks to the bees.
And sings pretty tunes
As it hands out its blooms.
And it smells very swell -
Like a vanilla well!
It’s so tall
It must’ve heard God call
Or Jesus cry
And it’s going to the sky
To find out why!
It’s everybody’s friend
So many birds come in.
Needless to say,
For the first time, that day,
I saw a Humming Tree.

Stirring

Bloodroot
In the forest
First of trout lily's catch
And morels peeking through the loam
April

Listing

Sad house
Witness to time
The tires that held your roof
Down for eons now implode you
Within

Weathervane

Co-opt
Role diversion
Adopt a point of view
By invitation from yourself
Live large

Woodglen

There is a reason

For woodglens and walk-abouts 

And coexistence. 

Be enfolded by the view

And embrace it in return. 

Reflective

Vaporous morning

Fog across the highland hills

Sacred in the sun

Warmer weather

Spring fling
Open the doors
Eat greens straight from the Earth
Absorb the flamboyant colors
Rejoice!

March frost

Silver filaments
Dreams of deepest purity
Wakening to light

Japonica

Red flowering quince
Brightens the warming landscape
In scarlet visions

Storm Watch

THUNDER
Are you trying
To ask me of the wind?
It's growing rapacious, I know.
Blind might

Changes

My blogs were begun at a transitional time of life ~ while caregiving. It meant I only accessed them as I could, and I tried to fill them with beautiful images and happy travels during a time when both were in short supply.

Caregiving is done for now. It has been for two years ~ two years of sleep, reflection, and healing. Now, renewed, I'm ready to renew my love for the written word as well. Thoughts have begun to flow again, and this is a perfect outlet for poetry in motion.

A fellow Left Bank Writer's Retreat student mentioned "a year of haikus." I thought, "I can do that." I am now on my fourth year. Three of those years I hope to publish soon ~ they offer a completion of "before, during, and after."

Along the way I also discovered Tankas, a longer form of haiku, as well as Cinquains ~ a rhythm of 2, 4, 6, 8, and 2 in each line ~ in a children's book. I love children's books ~ so colorful, simple, imaginative, and quaintly instructive. Both have their place, depending on mood or even the slant of sun. Here, then, begins my year...