#ShelterinPoetry #SharonLovejoy & #NationalPoetryMonth

readings:  lyrical words, memories, in “A Lap Full of Monarchs” Sharon Lovejoy – A BOOK OF TOADS; THE WILD BRAID, Stanley Kunitz ;  teachings of Betty Komarek, Birdsong Nature Center, where I resided one summer, care-taking. 

this blog is a proud part of poetry friday

Back in March I yanked an invasive thorned vine off ou

big black mailbox only to discover my mistake –

I also wrenched a thorn-tangled

sweet jasmine vine that sheltered an underleaf jewel,

nature-glued.

 

 

 What to do? Leave a treasure somewhere

out there? Under grandmother oak? Nestled among

ferns?

Because I’ve met Sharon Lovejoy and Betty Komarek,

because I’m a reader of Sharon Lovejoy and Stanley Kunitz

I knew, I knew.

With worried hands, I carried jewel on vine fragment

to screened front porch. 

 

 

 

Aqua box

transparent nursery

paper mache wiggle

hang out to dry

probe cut-fruit sustenance

walk through open door

        “Watch”c.2020JGAnnino

all photographs copyright 2020 JanGodownAnnino, all rights reserved

 

 

 

But!

Usually-welcome little brown lizard

creeps up (off-camera) thru foliage outside

yon door. Spotted not by me,

but by my eagle-eyed husband,

attorney advocate for kids,

who misses little about a predator.

Butterfly hadn’t graduated from walking to

more than a bunny hop, yet.

I stopped taking video & stills, tip-toed past

ground-floor butterfly &

placed barriers between it & the liz.

 

 

After about 6 ticking minutes, monarch did fly

out & up & away, on Easter Sunday, 2020.  As Betty Komarek would say, “Blessed Be.”

 

p

#ShelterInPoetry – Home front: Covid-19 times

Home front:  Covid-19 times.

Collected by Heidi Mordhorst #PoetryFriday for today’s #ShelterinPoetry

When I collect the plastic bag at the end of the drive, wearing a

plastic bag on my hand, and after I shake the daily news out of

said bag, I head straight for the important stuff. The funnies.

Sadly, few see funnies every day, these days. Have some here:

Comic strip about whiskered reporters

Other funny pages

A funny bird who believes a local pond is named for her, drawn by Nathan Archer.

copyright 2020 Shakespeare on the Sound http://www.shakespeareonthesound.org T.Y. to Michelle H. Barnes, for alerting me to this at your fb. page, shared by Stephen Burdman.)

::::

Do you find joy from other artists such as poets, singer-songwriters.

A bright song

A sweet poem

An ocean poem

I’m going now, back outside. Not way out in the world, but where I treasure

our luxury –  small, green, and growing yard. I follow shade in day. Find bright

Venus in the west at night. Soon it will be too Florida-hot to work outside.

Wings

Jan Godown Annino

Circus colors

clown faces

overeaters anonymous

you mesmerize me

a tent trick in my yard

leaf disappears into

chubby caterpillar

overnight, oval jewel

shelters crawly bug

morphing

to

paper flapper

a prayer that

no windshield

meets

your orange wings

as we hope

no Covid-19

wall crushes our

wings

C.2020JanGodownAnnino,allrightsreserved

O for more bright spots for all, especially children, in contrast to angst.

My prayers and heartfelt wishes are for all who suffer,

no matter how hugely or minisculey in our world’s

Coronavirus 19 epidemic.

I think of the elderly, the disabled, the already-physically frail.

#ThankHospitalHeroes

I applaud the Upstanders.

Teachers, caregivers, medical teams, #ThankHospitalHeroes, law enforcement,

emergency staff, essential service workers such as those who

haul off bins of excess we’ve wastefully created, appreciations

for food providers, and all their families –

whatever part of the network all helpers work in.

I think of life and death precipices for poor children,

some of whom are still being sexually trafficked during these

times. Crime hasn’t halted. It’s one of the issues industrious law

students with the FSU Public Interest Law Center work on daily.

And my hubby leads some of these brilliant students via

Zoom sessions in the LR. All the more reason for me to tip-toe outside.

It’s important to catch a smile when you can.

local buck-eye, gift plant of a dear neighbor

When you have a moment, what are your go-to smiles?

Good luck, wishes for healthy days and nights.

To sooth your Poetry Friday questions, it’s off to No Water River for you!