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!
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
A Killdeer is such a well adapted bird. She make her nest on the ground in a gravely area, where her speckled eggs blend in so well you cannot see them at first glance. In my experience coming across a Killdeer nest, the mother leaves the nest and attempts to draw my attention. She runs a short distance and calls, waiting for me to follow her away from her nest. I am always amazed that she can hatch her brood among the stones.
Birthed in stones they sit
Fledglings wait for mother’s food
Blending perfectly
Hiding from you in plain sight
Mother’s cries draw you away
These wonderful photos were posted on my Facebook page today, and I am grateful to Janette Sharp for allowing me to use them in my post.
Whether Mr. Roth’s Poems from the Heart are read over the course of a week or a day, you will feel each time that you’ve just had a heartfelt talk with a friend: a friend with a way with words in all the particulars that touch you to the core. You’ll come away as if you’d been on a companionable walk, finding more in common than not with the poet, and knowing that it was time well-spent for the sentiments shared.
So it’s altogether fitting that the first poem is “Famous Only Among Friends”; after all only such fame is real and meaningful, with time spent and hearts open. And Roth invites us into his thoughts with his signature openheartedness, a style that is thankfully short on obscurities and long on frank and unabashed clarity so that its poetic beauty penetrates the heart.
When I think of March and April, it brings back memories of flying a kite when I was a young boy. The kite came in a long paper sack with the paper kite wrapped around two sticks, one long and one short. On the kite, a string was glued into the overlapping edges with the string showing at the places where the sticks were to attach. The kite was stretched and attached to each stick in the form of a T. It was diamond shaped and at the bottom I always tied a tail made form old rags or strips of cloth. This kept the kite from flipping round and round! With a two hundred foot roll of string tied to the middle of the T, the kite was ready.
I took the kite to the top of the hill on a windy afternoon, and lifted it over my head to catch the wind. It would catch and lift, immediately rising high into the sky. Slowly I let the string out until it reached the end of the roll. By then the kite was soaring high above the field with the tail flapping in the wind.
Truly living is like being a kite
thrown into the wind and carried high;
Yet, always grounded by the string
of moral and ethical values.
Calm winds keep us floating
barely above the horizon;
While the blustery gusts carry us
high above, and sometimes dive us down;
Yet, as long as we are tethered we soar.
When we lose touch with our grounding
We are carried rather than lifted,
and soon headed for a fall.
Photo: from free Bing Photos
Today Mish at d’Verse talked about how the weather in March and April is so fickle, warm one day and snow the next. Her dialogue brought back memories of flying kites as a boy. So this poem comes from a nostalgic spot. Hope you enjoy it.
Death reigns on the evening news, as we are shown reports of more police shootings. Marches and protests follow, as blame is passed and opinions are drawn on both sides. It disturbs me greatly to see this happen over and over again. Sadly, it seems to me, no one mentions the one thing that could have prevented many of these deaths from happening.
Tragic death lingers
Daily on the evening news
Trial by media
~ as accusations fly~
Sadly no one speaks
of what could keep them alive
Co-operation
***
This is my second Puente (bridge poem) for d’Verse Poets Pub. I have connected two senyru poems with a bridge line in the middle.
Today at d’Verse, Merril introduced us to Puente, bridge building in our poetry. We are to take the first verse and connect it to the third verse by a single bridge line that completed the first verse and leads into the third. This is a first for me, so I am sharing some thoughts running through my head today.
