Where’s Waldo?

You may remember a few years ago when Where’s Waldo was popular. A page packed full of pictures was given and you had to find the face of Waldo in the mix. Well, today I had a similar experience with my hummingbird.  She came to visit my Red Salvia blooming along my sidewalk.  I got my camera and snapped a few photos. When I went back to look at them, it was like finding Waldo. She was moving so fast and blended in with the leaves so well, it was very hard to find her. Do you see her in each photo feeding on my flowers?

Wings humming high speed

Dipping into each blossom

Sweet nectar of life

***

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Sorry for the less than sharp photos! This was taken from a distance and cropped severely!

Persephone’s Marks

Trees tell their stories

written with green and red ink.

Leaves of history long forgotten…

as Persephone comes and goes,

get trampled under foot after each season.

But, her promised return

instills a flicker of hope in our hearts.

Each year a ring of life is added…

a library of tales from summers past

when growth was fat or lean…

only told by the rings inside.

Until they die, they remain unseen!!

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, Sarah asked us to write a poem from Greek Mythology that included some aspect of Persephone and her comings and goings to Hades in the underworld. The myth is that when she comes she brings spring and summer for six months, but when she goes, everything dies and remains so for six months. I thought trees are a great way to illustrate that by observing their rings.

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Dog Days of Summer

Dog Days of Summer

Now we know why Punxsutawney Phil does not predict the end of summer. It is too hot for him to crawl up out of his hole. Mid summer was a beast this year, with temperatures above 90 F most days. Wildfires blazed all over the Northwest, sending smoke our way as weather fronts drug it across the country.

August has slipped in already with the promise of cooler days this week. When this month ends, Fall brings on Nature’s fashion show and  I am ready. Seems like each season ends just in time for us to look forward to the next one.

Tap-dancing on sand

August brings cooler promise

Farmers harvest corn

For our d’Verse prompt today, Frank Tassone asked us to write a Haibun reflecting on the month of August. When August comes we know summer is on its down hill slide into fall!

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Bumble Bee Thoughts

What does a bumble bee think

buzzing from flower to flower…

Does he know the purpose of his life

any more than you or me?

Driven by survival’s competition

he works from morning till night

collecting pollen // storing away…

Sensing that though it is now summer,

Winter will soon be on the way.

A lesson for all of us to follow…

Working with drive and purpose…

Knowing winter will soon be upon us.

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Haiku for Kids (book)

Since it is too hot for man or beast outside, I decided to work on a book to help kids write Haiku. It has 24 pages of full color photos, with a guide and space to write their own Haiku under the photo. Teachers and parents both could use the book. Great for kids from 9 to 90! Homeschoolers could enjoy work through this as well.

Writing Haiku poems

For kids from nine to ninety

Nature’s poetry

Photos; Dwight L. Roth

If you would like a free pdf. copy just email me at dwru27@aol.com

Woodpecker’s Romance

Red-bellied woodpecker pecking on the tree

Making holes in the maple for his mate to see

She makes her choice and the work begins

Wood chips flying as they dig in

Deeper and deeper into the trunk

They carved and pecked for over a month

Bodies disappear deep into the tree

Now only their tails is all I can see

A cavernous hole a perfectly round circle

Ready to start nesting in those shadows of purple

Warming the eggs for a couple of weeks

Brings out new babies all hairless and weak

Continuous food trips all day for a month

The new birds get stronger and ready for launch

Hanging around for a while in their cover

Then off to the woods their cycle starts over

You can see the hole they started in the center tree. This was in the back of my yard, about fifty or sixty feet away. I could watch them making their next from my living room chair. I watched as she sat on the nest, but I never saw the babies leave nest.  The next year they moved to a different location and the squirrel moved in enlarging the hole so much that the whole top of the Maple tree broke off in a storm. I shot the photos with a 200 mm telephoto lens and then cropped them even more with the Windows photo editor.

This happened in the spring of 2017. I posted this poem after watching all this take place. I hope your enjoyed my rerun of this one.

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Only a Moment

My little one dollar sale rack hibiscus paid off with a gorgeous bloom. Amazing how it has put out a flower in the middle of the summer on a 95 F day.  It did not last long in this heat, but long enough to get a photo. And… there are more buds waiting in line to bloom.

Flower of beauty

Lasting only for a day

Soak up the memory

iPhone Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Don’t Marry a Drip

“A quarrelsome wife is like the dripping 

of a leaky roof in a rainstorm”

It is not about the making up

Rather, about making a wise choice

Irritations wears thin rather quickly

So choose compatibility

when picking a wife

Today at d’Verse, Merril asked us to choose a proverb and write a poem that includes it.   I chose Proverbs 27:15 NIV Bible.

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Painting: Dwight L. Roth

• note: disclaimer- This post is not talking about my personal relationship with my wife! Rather, it is a general observation based on this proverb.

Waiting

So much for Climate Change

Cars streaming far as the eye can see

I’m stuck in the flow

It’s the first day of school

Parents picking up their child

Cars large and small idling

in intense summer heat

Leaving carbon footprints

at three fifteen

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Today at d’Verse, De Jackson asked us to write a Quadrille (exactly 44 words) using any form of the word stream. I just got home after sitting in traffic lines at the local Charter School. Seemed like every child’s parent was there, lined up in both directions, to pick up their child. Took me fifteen minutes to go a mile through the stream of traffic!

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Humming Bird

There you are every morning at my perch

Drinking from my fermented fountain

Addicted to the sour nectar

All of your iridescence shimmering in the sunlight

Pausing now and then to look at me

As I make my morning coffee

Movement in the shadows

Not sure what to make of me

The sunlight blinding your view

Making it difficult to see the details

Yet you come back every day

Finding nourishment and strength

In the liquid of life that sustains you

Hoping to get your fill

Before another drives you away

Claiming it to be theirs alone

Sort of like my view of God…

Moving in the shadows of my life

Providing sustaining strength and hope

Not exactly sure what I am seeing

Everyone thinking they alone have it right

Blinded by the light of Grace

Photos: Dwight L. Roth