FEBRUARY POETRY challenge to myself

February always seems to be a hard month, a transitional month, a wintry month, though it does contain Valentine's Day and my birthday and my daughter's birthday. . .it still seems to be a hard month. So, beginning the 1st of February and for the whole month I will daily write and "blog" a poem, which is rather intimidating because I cannot practice or predict what each will be. So, stay tuned for my own POETRY CHALLENGE to push the February blues away. . .

INCARCERATED - the poem

I wrote this poem last year, but when I began to see the Christmas tree lots spring up along the highways, I decided to resurrect it for the holidays. I still like it very much!

yesterday i saw
a flock of evergreens
ensconced in a
Christmas tree lot
crowded together
pushing and shoving
jostling for position
tightly against a chain
link fence topped
with razor wire
confined with no
way of escape
incarcerated
through no fault of
their own looking
like puppies in a
pound up for adoption
anxiously peering
hopefully expectant
eyes pleading

choose me
pick me
please take me home
with you
pretty please
i'll be your best friend...

POSTSCRIPT

today the 26th of december
i again drove by the lot
and saw the aftermath

looking like photos
from news reports or
pictures from life magazine

the cut-off bodies
boughs laid flat
on the ground
in rows

silent except for
the sound of the
chipper being brought
to life

green expectant lives
new destiny
mulch

perhaps to protect and
nourish newly planted
evergreen sprigs
this spring

if they had mouths
or a voice

would they tell?

Huntington Beach State Park

After this wonderful trip to the beach I feel lazy and have no amazing words to describe our trip...so I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Lake Lanier

This week spent in Cumming, GA was pay back for such a brutally hot summer in the south...this week was perfect. Sunny with enough breeze to keep things interesting - cool days and cooler nights making the hot chocolate taste great.


The leaves were just beginning to turn color and I had a pair of scissors, so of course I cut heart shapes to stick on boards and branches to photograph. I'm sure that's exactly what you would have done if you'd had such a beautiful day to enjoy.

Northern Adventure

OK, if you've been reading my blog for any length of time you know that we like food and I like to take pictures of it. On our trip up north we stopped at a Mennonite weekend market called the Wind Mill overlooking Keuka Lake. I bought great pumpkins and we ate butter steamed potatoes and Zweigle's Italian sausage with peppers and onions. Then we ate ice cream at Seneca Farms in Penn Yan. I had a Mexican Sunday with coffee ice cream and chocolate sauce with Spanish peanuts. Maybe I should be a food writer!! But, back to the pumpkins...northern pumpkins are much more varied and exotic than those offered in Greenville. I think northern ones are "free-range" or perhaps anything bought on vacation just seems better.

One of our favorite family things to do in Rochester, NY was to go to the Rochester Museum and Science Center. Walking down memory lane, Phil and I decided to stop by to see if the dioramas had been dusted and the tiny Indians and their bark canoes had been repaired. Good to say that all was fresh, dusted, and repaired! I took this photo because I have not seen a Mastodon in a very long time.

The Erie Canal flows right through my town and even offers canal rides and week-long adventures on old fashioned canal boats.

My home town of Fairport, NY takes fishing seriously and makes fresh bait available day or night through the use of "bait vending machines" placed strategically around town.

Lake Hartwell

We have only eaten in one restaurant in Anderson. It is called The Corner Bagel Shop and if it was in my neighborhood, I would go every day and weigh a hundred pounds more than I do. Homemade bread and bagels are turned into fresh creative sandwiches and bagel chips. mmmmmmm This may just be one of the main reasons we camp in this area. Lunch!

Lake level was way down and the shore was muddy, but oh so beautiful when you didn't look directly at it and just considered it all sandy beaches. The water sparkled and the fish jumped. It was perfect!

Although the weather was warm there was a touch of autumn in the air and on a few leaves as well.

Our campsite had a perfect view of the water and the lovely sunsets...as you can see...

Last Tomato

LAST TOMATO HANGING

dried vines
juicy red fruit
split from recent rains

bees and bugs
and butterflies
lick sweet fermentation

fly off with silly grins
spring's promise
summer's heat

boiled in its own taught
wrapper weeping
warm tears

crimson orb
pierced - penetrated
impregnated by things
with wings

robust living
pulsating
red womb
alive

funeral ants climbing
up golden stalks
crispy stems

dis-assemblymen
eager for
this season