Saturday, April 4, 2020

House bound and down


My friend Gerry is back to writing and shared his recent work with me. Would you visit his blog? Click on his name above. If you are local, you may recognize the landmarks. 


Being housebound has its benefits. I cleaned the carpets and read three books in the past two weeks. I have cooked (and eaten) more than ever before. 

Today I fiddled with poems. What do you think?  Do you have a preference, a particular style? Next week we are expecting temperatures around 80 degrees. I will be sitting in the sun, not under an apple tree! 

Spring Palette

Splash the barren earth with daffodils,
golden forsythia o'er the hills.
Smudge hedgerows purple, dark and light,
tint azalea blossoms raspberry bright.
Rouge ruby red on pansy cheeks,
daub dainty smiles that glow for weeks.
Spread winter’s lawn with sage and jade.
Paint spring on every branch, and blade. 


Housebound Locked Down


In a crook of the rippled lake 
still water cradles autumn’s 
discarded foliage, usurped 
by algae propagating 
in sunshine golden as the finch 
that flew its nest, confused 
by the absence of visitors 
missing out on nature's best.


Suburban Orchard

The newly arrived immigrant  
planted a dozen apple trees alright
there on his small front lawn,
and
painted the trunks stark white.

Flowering orchard, twelve towering trees,
uniformed sailors taking orders from the breeze.
Blossoms drifting, swirling, floating down
from 
the best-dressed apple trees in town. 

Who am I to say a spread of sweet Williams
or daffodils would be more apropos?
This man from "over there" probably doesn't know,
 
a hedge of roses in all their glory would certainly delight.

But who am I to say HIS front yard is wrong
and everyone else is right? 
Neighbors mow their grass and whack away their weeds.
While we all manicure our lawns, he tends his apple trees.


P.S.
This orchard is a few blocks from our home on a main street. 


One year we were taking a drive and came upon an entire front lawn of pink flowers,
thousands of them.


What is the darndest thing you've seen on a front lawn?  




7 comments:

Sioux Roslawski said...

Linda--I've seen a toilet in a front yard--and it was repurposed as a flower pot.

I've watched too much TV, along with eating too much. Something has to stop!

Connie said...

I like all of these poems, but I think I like the last the best because it tells a story. I think an old style footed bathtub made into a flower bed is probably the oddest thing I've seen in a front yard.

Kathy's Klothesline said...

Love your poetry!! I have 3 more apple trees, so I will still get fruit. I just don't like that blank spot! I wish the weather would cooperate with the quarantine! I have plenty to do outside and I am so tired of these four walls!

Val said...

WooHoo! The sun just popped out as I read this! I hope you have your track shoes on, to sprint out an enjoy it.

DUTA said...

I love them all three.
Your poems touch relevant topics : Spring with its flowers, Lockdown with its social isolation and distancing, Immigration with the immigrant as a constructive human being.

Susan said...

The darnedest thing I ever saw on a lawn? WAYYYYY too many fake pink flamingos. Oh heavens, they are NOTHING I'd want on my lawn. But they were, well, very pink and perky. ha haha

Susan said...

well, I hope you and your family will one day benefit from the orchard by getting some nice apples, Linda.