Issue No. 5

The Weekly Avocet, every Wednesday!

January 16, 2013

Hello, welcome to our Weekly Wednesday Nature poetry fest.

Thank you to those who have shared the Weekly Avocet with friends. If a friend would like to have the Weekly Avocet sent, please have them email me.

Again, time for a little business – If you are enjoying the Weekly Avocet, (52 weeks of the Weekly Avocet) and four issues of the printed Avocet, all for just $24, a steal of a deal, please think about supporting the Avocet’s community of Poets and Nature-lovers. See details below for information of how to subscribe.

If you haven’t yet, sent in one nature winter-themed poem (please, only one) please do!

Please feel free to forward The Weekly Avocet to family, friends, and all those you might know who love a little nature in their lives.

If you like a poem please let the poet know it. We all like it when another poet takes the time to write us about our work.

Please enjoy your scroll through nature…

Weekly Avocet - January 16, 2013 SNOWGLOBE I take my grandson’s hand in mine as we trudge over brittle hoarfrost beneath the mad January moon, a pitch-black canopy of winter stars.

Frigid wind and swirling snow nip our faces. We cross the threshold of a looming forest. An unseen stream speaks to us with reassuring cadence.

He points to a twisted birch that bends low and reaches for the water. My mind slips back six decades: I stand beside my grandma in Woolworth’s Five and Dime.

Her grip on my arm tightens painfully upon each offered treasure that I spurn.

In desperation, I choose a snowglobe: pine trees, a speckled deer and two tiny observers -- one larger than the other.

A sudden icy gale shatters my reverie, stabbing through mufflers and gloves.

“I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”

We head home huddled together for closeness and for warmth.

Lynn P. Elwell lpe@mindspring.com

- Sir Isaac Newton

-2-

Weekly Avocet - January 16, 2013 snowfall

lying in bed morning snowfall on the balcony

quietly watching a few lingering maple leaves become

snow cradles until top heavy and poof! they twist and sometimes

tumble with the crystals

there are things to do this morning...

snowfall on the balcony...

ayaz daryl nielsen darylayaz@me.com

“Look deep into nature, and then you’ll understand everything better.” - Albert Einstein -3-

Weekly Avocet - January 16, 2013

Crest

Filling bird feeder at daybreak, filigree

breath crystallizes, breathes in after-scent

of snow, smoke-laced in winter firmament.

Crested redbird sits on ice-flecked bough,

his sweet whistle call—a capella

flutters, softens under sepia sky

turned Giotto blue as we both soar.

Nancy Ann Schaefer n.schaefer@mchsi.com “If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.” - Rudyard Kipling -4-

Weekly Avocet - January 16, 2013

REPOSE

inching down

a naked boulevard

slow and solemn

as a soup line

death and her attendants

wear solitary wings;

winter hanging

in the hush,

pierced by the note

of a sparrow

Previously published in the Winter, 2011 issue of The Lyric

Barbara Astor b.astor@sbcglobal.net

“There can be no doubt that a society rooted in the soil is more stable than one rooted in pavements.”

- Aldo Leopold

-5-

Weekly Avocet - January 16, 2013

cliffs

early morning rosetta cafe ethiopian brew finished lit-laborings waiting light mist falling lightfoot reminder “gales of november come early” rain changing to heavy snow year’s first blizzard sudden urge visit cliffs white blanket turning tranny miles snow blowing across highway slip-slap wiper arc road signs disappearing mysterious soul fugue steady trek to summit

t. kilgore splake splake@chartermi.net

We are the lucky ones, the lucky poets, who have nature for inspiration.

Nature is everywhere, like poetry is everywhere, in every one.

-6-

Weekly Avocet - January 16, 2013 WINTER DREAMS I woke up this morning

All my neighbors slumber on

With stars still in the sky.

Winter diamonds velvet night

But oh, there is a glow

Red tail lights of a passing car

They sparkled hard and high.

The stillness starts to go.

Under amber street lights

Not a trace of wind has come

With branches etched so bold

To mar the snowy scene

Lay the dream of every child

I look for morning in the sky

The purest whitest snow.

For pink and rose and green.

Up from many chimneys

Streaks of light are in the east

Came the puffs of white

My childhood heart is yearning

Every furnace making heat

A further gift, the waning moon

Against the chill of night.

Hovers at the turning

Standing at my window

Slowly, forms that were so dark

Warm in satin gown

Emerge in tones of grey

Cat’s gone out, coffee’s on

The snow dreams of each child

Silence is profound.

Come bounding into DAY!

Bushes look like sugar lumps

Lynne Haussler Oakes

lynneoakes@aol.com

The driveway wears a sheen

The cat comes in, the coffee’s done

This is my private scene.

“Once you begin to stretch beyond what is familiar, you are able to stretch further.” - Terces

-7-

Weekly Avocet - January 16, 2013 Marina, In Winter Here, Bayside A solitary setting Subdued beauty, singular and changing Amid a symphony of synchronized humpback waves-Waves rolling tumbling racing As if following a leader, unconditionally-With distant echoing gulls retorting honking geese, A relaxed chorus line of undressed trees watches over The abandoned park, childless swing, lonely gazebo.

Waiting.

Now, As no visitors save one approach, A sprinkling of boats, seasonally orphaned, A sorority, sisters huddled together for warmth and protection, Sits silently, snowbound in backed-in berthsStaring, face to face-Each fitted with a white, stretch winter`s coat, These, once christened: Gusting Lady Vita Bella Merlo ll The Supernatural...

Are part of an uncovened meeting, reveler-free, With naked masts at attention None but two with flags aloft, Each hibernates, impatiently waiting for Spring.

«Please, hurry.

John Lysaght

Come soon.»

jjrynn@verizon.net

-8-

A poem can take only a minute to read, yet live with the reader for a lifetime!

From one of our own: Commentary on poetry in current U.S. magazines by P M F Johnson.

There is a lot to learn from reading these commentaries.

http://poetrycommentary.wordpress.com/

P M F Johnson can be reached at: pmfjohnson@pmfjohnson.com If you want to read an interesting interview of Pablo Neruda, The Art of Poetry, by Rita Guibert of the Paris Review, please click on below:

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4091/ the-art-of-poetry-no-14-pablo-neruda

We hope we provoked you to thought; that you leave having experienced a complete emotional response to the poetry. I want to thank our Poets for sharing their work with us this week.

To know it, that you are a poet, you must write, read other poets, subscribe, buy poetry collections, and bring poetry into the lives of those who don’t know of its beauty.

Please think about sending a subscription check for just $24.00 for four issues, (60 pages of pure poetry) (shipping in the USA) made out to: Avocet, a Journal of Nature Poetry Charles Portolano, Editor P.O. Box 19186 Fountain Hills, AZ 85269

And, “Thank you for reading, dear reader!”

Again, if you haven’t, yet, sent in one nature winter-themed poem (please, only one) please do!

Please remember it is one poem, per poet, per season for The Weekly Avocet’s submissions.

Be well, see you next Wednesday Charles Portolano Editor of the Avocet, a Journal of Nature Poetry

Please visit our website www.AvocetReview.com

Sample copy - $6.00

With your subscriptions, The Weekly Avocet, every Wednesday, is sent by email to all the friends of the Avocet to read and enjoy Nature poetry for the-middle-of- the-week-blues.

Guidelines for

The Weekly Avocet every Wednesday, an e-mail of Nature Poetry Please send only one poem, per poet, per season. Let’s do winter-themed poetry for now.

Please no more than 38 lines per poem.

Please use single spaced lines.

Please use the Times New Roman - 12pt. font.

Please send your submission to angeldec24@hotmail.com Please remember, previously published poems are fine to send.

Please always put your name and email address under your work, thank you.

I love getting poems sent to my computer. What a great way to start any day. A wonderful website is Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac, every day one poem and lots of Art history.

Please check it out:

http://writersalmanac.publicradio.org/ I start everyday reading it, great fun!

Hope to see you next week on Wednesday, thank you!

Be well, keep warm, Charles Portolano Editor of the Avocet

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