Y’know how once you see something, you can’t unsee it?
This morning, on a run with a friend, we came upon a night heron hunkering near a kind of half-full swimming hole on our drought-thirsty greenbelt. And y’all, I swear to you, he looked EXACTLY like Statler from the Muppets.
Night Heron
Hunched as a Muppet
night heron looks skeptical,
demands the last word
#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth
After complaining about poison ivy, I thought it only right that I celebrate the beauty winding all over every fence and trellis in town right now.
Star Jasmine
Each bright vine of stars
a heady constellation
Generous Jasmine
#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#NationalPoetryMonth
I love the neon green pop of spring every year but I am very, very, very allergic to poison ivy and it makes its presence known in a big way here, lining the edges of every trail, reaching for my ankles, leaping onto the dog’s coat. Ugh. No, thank you.
Poison Ivy
Spring’s marquee trumpets
poison ivy’s arrival –
creepy headliner
#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#NationalPoetryMonth
What’s the living thing in this poem? Well, honestly, when it’s been this long since it’s rained, the rain itself feels alive. And instantly, instantly, everything else comes alive too.
Thirst-quenching nectar
We open like birds or buds
Rain during a drought
#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#NationalPoetryMonth
For this final week of April, a slightly looser set of prompts than colors or days of the week or planets: to each day write about any living thing. Or, in this case, living things. Sort of.
Dog
Like a wrecking ball
first one on the trail at dawn
slaying spider webs
#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth
Today’s the final color prompt — the V in ROY G. BIV.
What a lush and regal color!
Violet showed up early, in emperor’s robes and ancient art.
Intense, expensive, coveted.
And then there’s that pretty little flower…
Violet
Aristocratic
and ecclesiastical:
extravagant bloom!
#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#nationalpoetrymonth
NOTE: Today is the final day of color exploration. Our last prompt for the month (after planets, days of the week, and colors) is the most wide open — 7 living things! I’m here for it, starting tomorrow. Are you?
It’s Earth Day.
So much to celebrate and so much to grieve.
Today’s prompt — indigo — this deep and simple color — is a good reminder of the former.
Earth’s gifts of beauty and usefulness are overwhelming, this color among them.
I’m grateful.
Indigo
Indigofera:
Blue is boiled, transferred, dried
Deepened on repeat
#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#NationalPoetryMonth
“Why is the sky blue?” is one of the world’s most common questions.
The answer is that sunlight is actually made up of all the colors in the rainbow, but when it hits the Earth’s atmosphere, the light scatters. Blue light, with it’s short, small waves, scatters the most (attention-grabber that it is) so that’s what we see.
And next in our list of common questions: “Why is the ocean blue?”
The answer is that water absorbs the colors with longer wavelengths first. So the blue (again! show off!) is the color we see.
Y’all probably already knew all that, and I did too, but for some reason it’s one of those things I need a regular refresher on. The details escape me. So here they are again, scattered waves and all.
Blue
Waves of blue scatter
overwhelm the elements
till it’s all we see
#lizsharespoems
#nationalpoetrymonth
#30daysofhaiku
It’s funny how being green to something, being new, is both fresh and exciting and full of possibility, but also unschooled and innocent and even a little foolish. It’s funny, isn’t it?
Green
Are you new to this?
I ask each leaf, bud, new shoot,
each naive idea
#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#NationalPoetryMonth
Spring in the south is so, so pretty —
so green and so alive and sometimes, that’s the problem.
Today is the third day of color prompts!
We’ve arrived at yellow.
Yellow
This sun-colored scene
pollen like powdered tempera
a snow globe gone bad
#lizsharespoems
#30daysofhaiku
#NationalPoetryMonth