Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Prodigal ephemerally returning
Back in the world of the bloggers
Summer heat sapped creativity
Made me wish for cooler climes
A year away
Life moving to end
...or begin again with urgency to find itself wrapped in some season
Summer, fall, winter spring
All revolving around the calender we falsely label with days
I am here again
tadpole in the pool
Happy for now
It is feast or famine
I waste days hoping it won't dry out before my tail is absorbed
And I can hop away
Happy
Ephemerally Yours,
Drew
Friday, January 23, 2009
Home
Friday, June 27, 2008
Return of the Prodigal
Someone once said something about the best laid plans...
Well, my plans were to write faithfully to my nature blog on a "fairly regular" basis. Well, the last time I contributed to my little creation here, we were in the very shallow depths of a South Carolina winter. Now, here we are in the infancy of summer, having leapt clean over spring...
As time has passed, and temperature increased, I must admit that I have not faithfully followed a dear writing mentor's advice to me of writing everyday. Sure, I think about the process, but there are so many days that pen simply does not meet paper-- or in most cases for me, fingers meeting keypad.
Nature of course, goes on whether I write about it or not. Since my last entry, I've literally been on the other side of the earth to see nature in a very different light. A two week sojourn in South Africa cruising about the North Cape was one of the most enlightening experiences of my life. The landscapes were vast--intimidating in many ways in fact. The wildlife was wonderfully diverse. The photo attached to today's entry is of a gemsbok from the Kalahari (Kgalagadi) Transfrontier Park. It was a wildlife ecologists paradise and a birders dream. More on that later! I am, though, still trying to resolve some of the human ecology that I saw. I hope to drop a few notes on the blog here to post hoc a bit about the various and sundry issues swimming about in my head regarding my trip to the Motherland. It was definitely about more than the birds.
In between Africa and now I've also been in the spring snows at Keystone, Colorado and on the bays of downeast Maine. So I do have a lot in fact to write about--to share about so much.
And so I am back....ready hopefully to be a better and more faithful contributor. I'm not asking for any fatted calves to be killed on my behalf (some of you will get this) but I do feel the open arms and welcome. The prodigal nature writer has returned...
Naturally,
Drew
Sunday, February 10, 2008
My Dream Home
A little shack in the woods
In a well-established and wild neighborhood
Rough sawn, hand hewn and cedar strong
This rustic haven comes with a time-tested tin roof
and built in rain- drop-sleep inducer
Solar heated with breezy-blow through cooling
Deer and other natives retain right -of-way
Marooned
Living as I do
Beside busy people barely neighbors
Dodging cars and chasing time
Amongst trees that should not be here—
Where brittle Bradfords bear bitter fruit and
I crave quiet
A slower pace
Time measured in sunsets
And the return of the natives—
Liquid trickling songs of sparrows in the Longleaf
Ovenbirds teaching in oak and hickory
In a landscape fragmented by subdivisions
Named for the wildness they replaced
I am marooned
Stuck in a sea of cement
On an island called suburbia
Begging and baiting the birds to eat black oil handouts
The wildlife-
squirrels and starlings
Chipmunks and chickadees
Find refuge between the chain-link
The lines drawn to keep lawns sovereign
The world I crave is far away
In woods and fields and forests
Nameless and whole
Where the neighbors don’t speak
But bark, and gobble and sing
Where the squirrels are less brazen
And deer not dogs guard the world
Friday, February 1, 2008
In-Between
The days when pen and paper do not meet
When the lettered keys grow cold
When inspiration flies away
Darting between hum and drum
To avoid the ordinary
Like some fleet and furtive accipiter
I wonder when the mood will return-
A day a week or more?
When trees or birds or sky will inspire
A line or two
A reflection of time or place
The in between days are empty pages
No hunts no pecks
Until maybe
a vermillion flash through a wall of green
and a cardinal ‘s sweet song
“Purdy, purdy, purdy”
Full, rich and clear
Cheers the day
or a sinking sun
mellow golden orb against an orange and purple sky
dying to be reborn against the next morn’s new one
sets the mood to feel and think and write
of sights, sounds and scenes
until in-between
the doldrums sap the creative winds
and the sails fall flat
mind adrift until once more
the trades fill the canvas
and the in-between day
is just a memory
Monday, January 28, 2008
Winter's plumaged palette
These days are the January doldrums for me
The mid-winter “blahs”
Trees—bare boned and sleeping still
And me feeling sluggish too…
Shades of gray dominate many days
But if one looks closely
The subtlety of the season holds beauty for the focused eye…
An angry kinglet with a ruby crown,
Sassy titmouse perky gray and skulking thrasher brown
Constantly curious
Bawdy blue jay rancor and self-proclaiming din
Cardinals flashing brightest red and a flicker flashing gold
Paint a plumaged palette that colors winter’s cold