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On My Walks
Nature is a great source for poetry. I get many ideas for poems from my walks on my path through the trees and around the pond. The scenes in these photographs inspired some words or lines of poetry that might appear in one of my poems someday.
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March |
May Look! Bobcat secretive solitary tufted ears, bobbed tail, black-spotted brownish coat ambles by on silent paws. Unlikely morning visitor camouflaged in sunlight and shadows, It pauses, stares, before slipping away. Imagine my surprise when I saw this animal walking across my backyard! The bobcat is the most common type of wildcat in the United States. It hunts mostly during dawn and dusk hours and is rarely spotted by humans. The bobcat's black-spotted brown coat blends in with rocks, bushes, and other plants. It is about twice the size of the average house cat. The bobcat is named for its short ("bobbed") tail. The poem example here is an etheree, a 10-line unrhymed poem that begins with a one-syllable line and adds one syllable in each following line. |
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February 14 |
September In orange frock and black pinafore, gossipy ladies flash a bit of white petticoat as they flit flower to flower. We are enjoying an explosion of painted lady butterflies! They always pass through Nebraska heading south in late summer, but rarely as many as we have this year - hundreds of them in the flower garden. Painted ladies especially love purple and pink flowers, but will suck nectar from just about any late-blooming plant. They don't damage plants or cause problems and will likely benefit gardens next year because butterflies spread the pollen that plants need to produce seeds. |
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June |
February 2 Read a Groundhog Day poem. Groundhogs are rodents and the largest member of the squirrel family. They eat plants, fruit, and tree bark. They eat a lot in the summer to build up their stores of fat. After the first frost, they move to their underground burrows and sleep until spring. Other names for groundhog are woodchuck, marmot, and whistle pig. |
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January |
December On the first day of Christmas, Mother Nature gave to me… a possum in a crabapple tree! Possums (or, opossums) are nocturnal, but the one in the picture was moving about in the daytime. It seemed too heavy for the tree branches, but its balance was good. Its prehensile (is able to grasp objects) tail helped to stabilize it. Possums are North America's only marsupial. |
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November |
November First Snow Moon, Corn Moon, you spy through leafless branches with eyes of wonder Native American nations traditionally name full moons to represent months of the year. "First Snow Moon" and "Corn Moon" are two such names for moons of the autumn season. The photograph shows the "supermoon" that appeared tonight for the first time in 68 years and will not appear again until the year 2034. A supermoon occurs when the full moon is the largest, brightest, and nearest to the earth. | |
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October |
October Up from the mud black eyes glint in the sun. Thirteen moons of lore etch the carapace. Around her neck folds of age drape like a well-worn sweater. Wrinkled stocking legs belie strength. In the air a moldery scent bitterbut not unpleasant the smell of ancient dirt old leaves the end of summer. What a surprise it was to find this snapping turtle in the front yard! Snapping turtles live in ponds with muddy bottoms and seldom leave their habitat. This one had crawled quite a distance from the pond. Its shell, called a carapace, was longer than 12 inches, and its muddy tail was almost that long. A snapping turtle has a VERY strong jaw (with no teeth) and sharp claws. It is dangerous to handle. (If you see one, do NOT touch!) We returned it to the pond in a wagon…extremely carefully! (The "thirteen moons" in the poem refer to the number of moons in a year in many Native American cultures. Each moon has its own name and its own story.) |
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September |
September leafy shafts swaying tipped with gold feathered arrows point summer toward fall Goldenrod is a wild plant that grows in many places around the world. (It is the state flower of Nebraska.) Goldenrod is nutritious and has health benefits. Historically, it has been used to heal wounds and treat some diseases. Its pollen does not cause allergies, as many people believe. Its flowers and leaves may be eaten and can be used to make tea. The leaves may be cooked like spinach or added to soups and casseroles. |
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August |
August monarch butterfly dressed in orange and black silk queen of the garden You can attract monarch butterflies to your yard by planting milkweed. They lay their eggs on milkweed plants. The larvae hatch and eat the milkweed, eventually becoming caterpillars. Monarchs are born at different times during the summer. Only monarch butterflies born in late summer and early fall migrate. |
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July |
June Little Bird, little Bird, try your new wings. Jump out of our nest. See what the sky brings. Fly north to Alaska. Fly east to the sea. Fly west to the mountain. Then fly home to me. Several pairs of barn swallows have built their mud nests under the deck of our house. It is interesting to watch them swoop, abruptly turn, and dive, putting on their "airshows." What is most fun to watch is the flurry of activity that takes place when the mother and father barn swallows are trying to encourage the fledglings to leave the nest. Two or three pairs of adults join the parents, and all of them fly around it, circling, swooping in and out, with noisy tweets to the young birds as they teeter on the edge of the nest, not quite ready to take the plunge. |
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June |
May Forest fairies tied white satin bows on stems to mark a secret hiding place. OR Butterflies halted their frantic flit and flutter to rest on some stems and gossip. These wildflowers are commonly called "Dutchman's breeches" because they look like pantaloons or a pair of bloomers hung upside down. (Notice the three different words you can use for "pants"—they have slightly different meanings.) |
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May |
May pieces of sky scattered in the grass What an amazing color! It is not likely that these pieces of a robin's egg were the former home of this fledgling (a general name given to baby birds that have their flight feathers). Notice its coloration. It blends in well with its surroundings. It will be flying soon! |
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May Shy maidens flounce their purple frocks at the spring dance. Violets are not shy about blooming everywhere! |
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April |
April buttery cups spill sweet sundrops awakening Earth's tired winter eyes Always among the earliest of spring flowers, these daffodils inspired a haiku. |
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April sun settles on a slender stem, makes a splash Alliteration describes the forsythia! |
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April Goldfinches perch ready to swap drab wintry garb for sunny coats A tiny bit of yellow is beginning to show on the goldfinches. They spend the winter here, and their feathers change color. The male goldfinch is easy to spot in the summer with his bright yellow body and black cap. In winter, his feathers are brown with a light yellow throat. The female is olive green with yellow underneath in the summer, but turns gray in the winter. |
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March |
March Primeval night music on a black ribbon river gives way to exultation at dawn Sandhill cranes do not cross my walking path, but they do migrate across Nebraska and stay for awhile. More than 500,000 of these birds stop along the Platte River in central Nebraska during March to feed and prepare for the long journey from their winter homes in Mexico, Florida, and Texas, to nest in northern Canada and Alaska. In the evenings, they drift onto river islands, singing their crane song. When the sun comes up, they take off in an explosion of sound and wings. |
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March |
March indigo ultramarine sapphire cerulean raw umber teal the ocean's palette roils and tumbles to shore This week, my walking path is a beach in Hawaii. |
Hawaii is famous for its sunsets. The tiny bright spot on the hill is the last of the sun going down. |
People call this flower a "bird of paradise." It looks like a brightly colored bird in flight. Its scientific name is "strelitzia"—I like the sound of that word. | |
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February |
February Bitter wind pulls at the dusty rags caught in spidery branches. Squirrels' nests (called "dreys") are easy to spot in the winter. |
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February 14 |
All Content Copyright Prairie Sunshine
Photographs by Tom Wendelin