Walking my dog into the labyrinth
he has no sense of following the path
(marked with stone and showing the way)
he prefers random ins and outs
sniffs along breaking the barriers
(set by man to keep us in line)
smudge on his nose
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille and use the word smudge. I actually know a dog named Smudge but this is not about him. This is about my dog who always has his nose in just about everything.
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Rhododendron
blooming
purple in its splendor
risk taken
after a flower
the fade
no longer the showcase
of the garden
fertilize
mulch the ground
prepare it for
another bloom
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dVerse prompt on risk and remodel— garden is beautiful and then it isn’t
When plants fight back
leave a wound on finger
twig in the eye
scrap of the blackberry vine
stain of the grass
bitter taste
of the forgotten lettuce
renegade limbs
blocking my path
thought that they could
keep me away
wound up as compost
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dVerse prompt to use the homograph wound in a quadrille
How I woke up feeling
this fine day of rain
then sunshine
garden beds moist
ready for planting
weeds don’t stand a chance
when I walk by
what will it cost me this day
ready to pay the fine
dirt under nails
sore back
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dVerse prompt to write a quadrille with a homograph
Dakotas spoke it as mni wak’an
mni (water)
wak’an (pure source or sacred)
there was no concept of devil
til white man saw it as bad spirit
water that was undrinkable
created mirages like spirits
over the waters
marked it on the map
Devils Lake
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Traveling in North Dakota, I camped at this lake.
I was snowed in for days
kept the fire going in the woodstove
plenty of food in the pantry
wind picked up the drifts
moved them to fencing
all the while I fed logs
into the crackling fire
waiting for the melt
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dVerse prompt to write a narrative. I am traveling in North Dakota and imagining what it would be like here in winter.
This patch of ground
fertile soil holding
early pea seed
planted along the fence
golden edible pea pods
(I’m anxious for a stir fry—
hope of a harvest)
while underground
furry predator tunnels
eats them up
before they can sprout
no Spring pea patch
Field is plowed
not yet planted
need rain
enough to keep
the soil down
a rich bed for seed
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NaPoWriMo Day 29 prompt on out the window. Written while traveling through Iowa.
I am traveling through the Ozarks as I have a number of times, same highway, same destination. This time is different. The dogwood trees are in bloom, their flowers making thickets of white in a low canopy among tall oaks.
Where I am, surrounded by Ozark Mountains, the sun is setting and now the quiet water of the Lake of the Ozarks reflects the moon.
Spring in the mountains
flowers of many colors
open up to me
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dVerse prompt for a haibun in a state of now
rain rustles the fern
licks and twists it into green
subdues fire with wet
trickle of water
soft fur of the forest floor
sharp damp protection
kiss of trillium
white feather-like bud released
star of the lost cloud
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NaPoWriMo Day 3 prompt to create a word list based on Michael McClure’s Personal Universal Deck of 100 words. Create a poem using some of these words.
