Category: nature
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Rhinocerous rain
Driving north out of Nashville, traffic thickens to a slow confession near Fort Campbell, brake lights bloom like votive candles stretching out into Kentucky. I think of Thomas Merton, cloistered among the knobs and forests of Gethsemani Monastery. Where silence became a discipline. Prayer was not an escape, but another way of entering the world.…
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Lessons I learned from trees
no matter the girth of your trunk, the thickness of your bark, the depth of your roots if you lean too far to the right, too far to the left, too far forward or too far back, the heady weight of your branches will gather up the wind and snap you off at your base…
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Of the Pond
yesterday’s rain paints water a dull, muddy gray the sun catches a lone mallard’s V-shaped wake light reflects gold before the ripple dissipates back into the dull, muddy gray of last night’s rain 6-19-26
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In the Garden
evolution dresses the flower in flirty colored petals endows it with unspoken cravings for visits of the bumbling bee the caress of butterflies upon erect stamens dusted pollen on pristine pistils gifted by anonymous one night stands 6-14-26
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Change 2026
thunder proceeds the storm the flash – the swirling winds we were not deaf or blind we disregarded warnings we got caught in the rain and only have ourselves to blame and only we can drag ourselves inside dry off and change our clothes 6-13-26
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haiku of swelter
geese swim the shadows I watch from a shady bench drake rests in high grass 6-13-26
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end of season
Summer came they sheared the dog went to the beach stripped naked or as close as the law allowed They hoped a shark would not catch them off shore – off guard, there would be less cloth to spit before it swallows they also hoped a shark would not catch them off guard – on…
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seas of light
too hot to swim ducks and geese rest in cattail shadows in the shade of my yard I rest, call friends and wonder if the dead never leave us and are just resting in the shade of this life before they begin to swim in seas of light upon light 6-9-26
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rescue dogs
Rescue dogs press ribs against chain link fences. Hunger grows fur and learns to whimper. Each carries a story written in mange, cigarette burns, missing ears, limps that predicted rain. When anyone lifts their hand too quickly, a brindled mutt hides beneath a plastic chair. Volunteers call them damaged, but the dogs still wagged their…
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Thick and muddy
This morning the pond is thick and muddy; turtles still must extend their heads above the water to breathe. Geese teach goslings how to swim and dive for food. Mallards rest quiet on shore, while cattails grow slender and tall. Trees shake last night’s rain upon my head as I count the name of Light…
My husband's poetry 