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

Meet Horace

Meet Horace, our back yard tortoise. He was first spotted in the spring wandering around a crape-myrtle bush. Lately he has appeared in the garden and this morning he was lustily eyeing the fading tomatoes staked high on sticks. He is a rather quick turtle who moves right along when he wants to get somewhere.



He didn't mind having his photo taken, but then let me know that it was time for him to move on. He had interesting places to go, places I had never seen. I think he likes rotten vegetables and fruit as I've seen him frequent the compost hole. I know there is a poem about our Horace. I'll have to go find it!

Jocassee

With school back in session and temperatures blessedly below 90 degrees, we enjoyed another camping adventure at Lake Jocassee which appeared very tropical this week!

A water site allowed us to swim and launch the kayaks right out the back door.

We do like to camp with electricity which makes baking cupcakes in "the wild" possible!

Morning Glory

As some of you may know, because I talk about it all the time, I am compiling a collection of my poems about spring. Or, springish that captures a little summer as well. There are three, so far, about morning glories which flourish on our hillside. Enjoy this tasty one:



MORNING GLORIES ARE
PROLIFIC AND ADVENTUROUS

LIKE CURIOUS PUPPIES
THEY PEEK AND POKE

THEIR NOSES
AROUND

SNIFFING AND SNUFFLING
MORNING'S
FRESH DEW

EACH GLORY AWAKENING
FOR THE FIRST TIME

TRUMPETING PURE
UNADULTERATED
JOY

AT THE WONDER
OF SUCH

NEWNESS
SWEETNESS
KINDNESS

A NEW GLORY
FOR
EACH DAY

HIP HIP HURRAY!

Easy Sailing

Is that not one of the most beautiful amazing things you've ever seen? Summer has arrived hot and furious in the south which drives all of us southerners inside to partake of air conditioning and mint juleps (perhaps). Inside you may read books about other folks doing things or you can actually do something yourself. So, in the summer's heat I decided to make another art quilt using a sail-boat as my cooling motif. It is very cool!!!

Me in Black and White

I just returned from a poetry "camp" at Wofford College where I wrote a poem about a photograph we were given of a girl on a bicycle. The photo was probably 70 years old and taken in the Henry River Mill Village of North Carolina. When I first saw the photo, my reaction was "It's me!" I have a picture very much like it in my archives, only taken in Upstate New York.


It's me
It's me on a bike

I recognize the hair
hours spent
ammonia scented
tiny pink and blue rollers
tight against my scalp
shaping curls
cast askew by life and wind

I recognize the sweater
store bought
Momma didn't knit
pale yellow with plastic pearl buttons
freshly scented
cakes of lavender dissuading
moths and other creeping things

I recognize the dress
hand-made
Momma sewed
full skirted - pleasantly plaid
with pockets for important stuff
like tissues and hoppy toads
scented with Fels-Naptha
the dress, that is

I recognize the bike
it is fast
it is freedom
it is adventure and journey on wheels
it smells of red dirt
and green grass
and the fluffy yellow tops
of blooming dandelions

*******

I'm a goin'
and I'm a goin' fast
I may not come back
but
I probably will

I hear there's
chicken and biscuits for supper
and
dare I say
peach cobbler for dessert


postscript: My husband just saw the photo and had the same reaction - he thought it was me.

Lake Jocassee

When camping, I normally take pictures of our camper, camp-site or kayak, but this time I'm showing our early morning of berry picking at The Happy Berry. If you've never been, you should go and go early because it does get hot. The picking is easy and the place is beautiful and fun and delicious. I also enjoy eavesdropping on conversations going on round about me.

The prized black berries!!!

These are baby figs in progress.

A fruitful foto of luscious blue berries.

The cement statue was snuggled in the grass right where we parked the car. I loved the fact that it was in full view - but hidden. I'm sure most people passed it by as they raced to catch the freshest berries. I like it's quiet presence.