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Archive for the ‘Poetry’ Category

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I beg your pardon: I think I’m promising a WEED GARDEN!


IMG_3176When April showers may come your way
They bring the flowers that bloom in May
So when it’s raining have no regrets
Because it isn’t raining rain you know
It’s raining violets
[It’s May here in Central Maine and lots of dandelions (the first native weed variety to spring forth and blossom/more varieties to come) are taking over the gardens at the Stevens’s Farmstead this year.]

Spring has finally sprung in Central Maine. Our beloved perennials are booming!  That dreaded indigenous variety (a.k.a. dandelions) are in full bloom up too. I’m usually out in the gardening digging and pulling those hearty adversaries out of the garden at this time of year, but that was way back when. I ruptured a disc in my lower back in February and am still suffering from a pinched sciatic nerve. The pain runs from my lower back, shoots to my right groin, hip and knee. I took my trusty stool (garden buddy) and garden tools out to weed a few days ago. That didn’t go too well…can’t bend, reach and dig even with my buddy. Went back to the barn to get clippers and managed to trim all of my rose bushes and bask in the fresh air and sunshine!

My friend Marilyn Armstrong had complicated surgery recently and she’s in a similar predicament as far as gardening goes. If you haven’t visited her blog SERENDIPITY yet, here’s your chance. Marilyn is a great writer and her posts run the gamut—there’s always something to interest everyone!

I’ll attempt to entertain readers this year with what Marilyn calls posts from our INDEPENDENT GARDENS! Marilyn thinks we may start a new fad. Maybe win an award or two for independent gardens—a place where weeds rule. We’ll keep you posted. ~ Bette A. Stevens

Related Link & Video


April_Showers_coverhttp://en.wikisource.org/wiki/April_Showers

Written

on 05/20/2014

Aside

367. Every creator painfully experiences the chasm between his inner vision and its ultimate expression. ~Isaac Bashevis Singer


Wonderful! Must share with my writer friends… Thanks, Natalie!

nataliescarberry's avatarSacred Touches

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Dear “Watcher:”

To my “editor within” or
“watcher” if you prefer,
why, I ask,
have you gotten so out of hand?
Aggravation I must
in some way decree
For you let me start writing
with wild delight,
but then stop me just when
I feel I’ve taken flight.
So now of you I find,
I simply must demand:
Let me ramble with pen
and be as creative as I dare.
Once the words are on my paper,
then with you I’ll freely share.
But for now just let me write
my ideas all the way through
And afterwards we’ll go over them
and I’ll let you have your say.
One thought might help you
yield to my request…
remember you only correct for me,
but I don’t write just for you.
~Virginia Cook

For I am full of words, and the spirit within me compels me… ~Job 32:18 ✝

Thank you…

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Written

on 05/13/2014

Aside

THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT, EDWARD LEAR


An old favorite of mine with an awesome new photo! ~ Bette A. Stevens

Marilyn Armstrong's avatarSerendipity - Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth

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The Owl and the Pussycat

by Edward Lear

I

The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
‘O lovely Pussy! O Pussy my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!’

II

Pussy said to the Owl, ‘You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?’
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end…

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Written

on 05/07/2014

Aside

360. …Monet portrayed the changeability and flux of every moment. “The Water Lilies” give you a jittery, amorphous sense of a world seen at the speed of light. ~Jerry Saltz


WOW! ~ Bette A. Stevens

nataliescarberry's avatarSacred Touches

I gathered them–the lilies pure and pale,
The golden-hearted lilies, virgin fair,
And in a vase of crystal, placed them where
Their perfumes might unceasingly exhale.
High in my lonely tent above the swale,
Above the shimmering mere and blossoms there,
I solaced with their sweetness my despair,
And fed with dews their beauteous petals frail.
~Florence Earle Coates

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Wow! Don’t ya just love to be wowed?! According to the dictionary “wow” as an expression of excitement was first recorded in Scots in the early 16th century. But the dictionary doesn’t tell us what it was that generated enough excitement to inspire the “wow”, and I for one would really like to know. I love to be wowed; Creation and the Lord wow me over and over again in ways like no other. Okay, okay, I know; so what is the connection between water lilies and a word that expresses…

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Written

on 05/06/2014

Aside

356. Reflection is a flower of the mind, giving out wholesome fragrance… Desiderius Erasmus


A Writer’s Voice! ~ Bette A. Stevens

nataliescarberry's avatarSacred Touches

Your writing voice is the
deepest possible reflection of who you are.
The job of your voice is not
to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences.
In your voice, your readers
should be able to hear the contents
of your mind, your heart, and your soul
~Meg Rosoff

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A spring morn,
A summer’s eve,
A gladsome spirit…

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A soaking rain,
A lawn sprinkler’s whirl,
A well watered garden…

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A single rose,
A blazing sunset,
A solitary serenity…

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A flower garden,
A lowering hush,
A steeping sanctitude…

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A sacred Sabbath,
A timely sermon,
A pastor’s wisdom…

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A holy benediction,
A Franciscan prayer,
A forgiving Savior’s love…

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A cool, crisp day,
A frost tipped lawn,
An end to summer’s siege…

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A chilly, autumn night,
A yellow harvest moon,
A heart full of thanksgiving…

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A fallen leaf,
A heavy, wintry frost,
A magical majesty under a sapphire sky…

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Years ago in trying…

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Written

on 05/02/2014

Aside

Vernal Equinox Haiku by Lorraine Margueritte Gasrel Black


Yes… Art, Poetry & SPRING! ~ Bette A. Stevens

silverbirchpress's avatarSilver Birch Press

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VERNAL EQUINOX HAIKU
by Lorraine Margueritte Gasrel Black

Bird song on the wind
floral raiment dresses an
awakening world. 

IMAGE: “Blue lady with parrots” by Walasse Ting

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Read Lorraine Margueritte Gasrel Black‘s bio at poemhunter.com.

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Written

on 03/20/2014

Aside

310. Light touches you only to shift into iridescence upon your body and wings. ~Excerpt from a poem by Louise Bogan


Exquisite—poetry in motion! ~ Bette A. Stevens

nataliescarberry's avatarSacred Touches

Today I saw the dragonfly
Come from the wells where he did lie.
An inner impulse rent the veil
Of his old husk: from head to tail
Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
His dried wings: like gauze they grew;
Through crofts and pastures wet with dew
A living flash of light he flew.
~Lord Alfred Tennyson

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What an absolutely exquisite creature!  Such as this winged beauty are so stunningly wondrous that I’m almost left speechless when I see them.  Not only are they breathtaking in form and beauty but they are also valued predators in controlling populations of harmful insects.  And the fact that their oldest known relatives date back over 300 million years ago seldom fails to bring forward for me images of what earth’s pristine splendor must have been like in the beginning.  In addition I find it fascinating that they have been a subject of…

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Written

on 03/18/2014

Quote

Intellectuals Urge Leaders from ‘The Americas’ to Protect the Monarch Butterfly


Maine Author/Illustrator Bette A. Stevens advocates for children, childhood literacy and Monarch butterflies.

Maine Author/Illustrator Bette A. Stevens advocates for children, childhood literacy and Monarch butterflies.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter referred to Monarch butterflies as ambassadors to The Americas.

What will today’s leaders do?

On Wednesday, February 19th, Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto, U.S. President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper are meeting in Toluca, Mexico to discuss such matters as economic competitiveness, trade investment, entrepreneurship and security. A letter to these three leaders has been signed by more than 150 intellectuals, including Nobel literature laureate Orham Pamus, U.S. environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr. and Canadian author Margaret Atwood, noting that the Monarch population has dropped to the lowest levels since 1993 when recording monarch data began. They are urging the three leaders to devote part of their meeting to discussing ways to protect the Monarch butterfly. (Modesto Bee 02-13-2014)

In my own efforts to advocate for these amazing and near threatened creatures, I penned the poem, A Monarch’s Dream, based on my children’s picture book: AMAZING MATILDA: A Monarch’s Tale.

Find out how you can help protect our Monarch Butterflies at http://makewayformonarchs.org/i/#

Wikipedia:

The Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a milkweed butterfly (subfamily Danainae) in the family Nymphalidae. It is perhaps the best known of all North American butterflies. Since the 19th century, it has been found in New Zealand, and in Australia since 1871, where it is called the wanderer.[3][4][5] It is resident in the Canary Islands, the Azores, and Madeira, and is found as an occasional migrant in Western Europe and a rare migrant in the United Kingdom.[6] Its wings feature an easily recognizable orange and black pattern, with a wingspan of 8.9–10.2 cm (3½–4 in).[7] (The viceroy butterfly is similar in color and pattern, but is markedly smaller, and has an extra black stripe across the hind wing.) Female monarchs have darker veins on their wings, and the males have a spot called the androconium in the center of each hind wing.[8] Males are also slightly larger than female monarchs. The Queen is a close relative.

The monarch is famous for its southward late summer/autumn migration from the United States and southern Canada to Mexico and coastal California, and northward return in spring, which occurs over the lifespans of three to four generations of the butterfly. The migration route was fully determined by Canadian entomologists Fred and Norah Urquhart after a 38-year search, aided by naturalists Kenneth C. Brugger and Catalina Trail who solved the final piece of the puzzle by identifying the butterflies’ overwintering sites in Mexico. The discovery has been called the “entomological discovery of the 20th century”.[9] An IMAX film, Flight of the Butterflies, tells the story of the long search by the Urquharts, Brugger and Trail to unlock the secret of the butterflies’ migration.[10] There is evidence that eastern North American populations of the monarch butterfly migrate to south Florida and Cuba.[11]

RELATED ARTICLES

Written

on 02/18/2014

February, poem by Linda Pasdan


Lovely images for a February day! ~ Bette A. Stevens

silverbirchpress's avatarSilver Birch Press

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FEBRUARY (Excerpt from “The Months”)
by Linda Pastan

After endless
hibernation
on the windowsill,
the orchid blooms—
 
embroidered purple stitches
up and down
a slender stem.
Outside, snow
 
melts midair
to rain.
Abbreviated month.
Every kind of weather.
***
Read “The Months” in its entirety at poetryfoundation.org. Originally published in Poetry (October 1999).

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265. Of the six million species on the planet, only man makes language. Words. What’s more — in evidence of the Divine — we string symbols together and then write them down, where they take on a life of their own and breathe outside of us. ~Charles Martin


Ode to writers everywhere… Thank you, Natalie Scarberry at Sacred Touches blog. Your posts never cease to inspire! ~ Bette A. Stevens

nataliescarberry's avatarSacred Touches

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I write because there is nothing larger in life than
To be read, maybe even reread by another–
To be examined and then verified of being
Understood, or trusted like a saint–
I don’t imagine being immortalized
Or stacked in a library for hands with a million
Oppositions to wander through for
Poetic justice either–

Perhaps purpose is purchased or earned or even
Inherited by some mystic right–
But it is my reasoning I hearken to,
All that I am resonates with inscribing, putting down
My Self on the papyrus of today,
Like a manuscript never quite decrypt but
Interesting to the soul’s eye
For perpetual encounter.
~Deborah Jeanne Avila

All the kings of the earth shall praise you, O Lord for they have heard the words of your mouth.  Psalm 138:4  ✝

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Nature, Poetry, Quotes, Writing

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