Posted on:Free form poetry Poetry SPOKEN WORD writing

The Dark Sky Poetry Project

Our labor of love- a video poetry event we call, The Dark Sky Poetry Project.

We made this video to offer a way for local poets to be a part of a weeklong celebration of dark sky events at the Northport Arts Association, in Northport , Michigan that included a fantastic gallery exhibit (with social distancing and masks in place!) There was a night of music about the stars, a lecture by Mary Stuart Adams and a dark sky photography workshop given by nature photographer, Sheen Watkins at the tiny Woolsey Airfield here at the top of the Leelanau Peninsula in Michigan. It’s been a magical week as our night sky not only dazzled us with clear skies and a billion stars, the Aurora Borealis decided to show her face and the Neowise comet did a photobomb.

Here’s Sheen’s luckiest photo ever from Cathead Bay on Lake Michigan from June 13, 2020. 109323459_10217789036012763_8275601304294396698_o

www.sheenwatkins.com

 

Northport Arts Association:   NAA

Posted on:Free form poetry Poetry writing

Poetry Day: Monarch

Monarch

Dirty hands in the garden

Flowers in their places- just so.

Ready now for Monarchs 

as they make their way north from Mexico.

Time and money and work

to get it right and make it welcoming

for these elusive visitors.

A few weeks on-

flowering nicely

alone.

Wandering back to the barn

along the edge of the woods

where wild things grow

stood dozens of milkweed plants

sharing their heady fragrance

with the bees and monarchs 

who were busy with their work.

Strange, just then, to think of me at 25. 

Remembering the time and money and work

to make myself a garden

for a monarch 

and in the end of that-

it wasn’t about the shine and the slope,

the curves and the tightness

the tone or the petal covering-

The monarch settled happily

On a wild familiar flower

We could learn much from

accepting what the monarch wants.

PicsArt_07-14-12.38.57

 

 

Posted on:Free form poetry Poetry writing

Poetry Day: The Best Perfume

The Best Perfume

If they could bottle

the perfect perfume

of the yard

on this July night-

it would be the only thing I’d wear.

Honeysuckle and milkweed chase

nicotiana

as they run on the air

to greet me.

And as I round the corner

petunias, lavender and geranium

rise to dance with fragrant pine.

Parisian perfumers come close

in their white laboratories.

But they miss the notes of ozone

heralding a sun shower approaching

and the whiff of fresh cut grass

arriving from the neighbor’s lawn.

And the subtle musk of wildlife that

crossed in early morning as they stole

the bright flower heads for breakfast.

A thousand unseen elements

create this custom blend-

the pure essence of summer.

Posted on:writing

Poetry Day: Gollums on A Day Off

Gollums On A Day Off

They wait-

Fidgeting gollums

Pacing the floors

Like adolescents denied their Ritalin-

Listening to their radios

Checking Twitter feeds

For instructions-

Where to aim their ignorance next

Mindless clay minions

Awaiting orders