March 27.20: Coping

‘Mid hyacinth and violet

unfolds the dainty thyme rosette;

lowering rusty sacroiliac,

I sniffed at it and it sniffed right back.

 

March 1.20

Myriad the gentle frill

back from death

yet each time

I hold my breath.

 

 

March begins, dear reader, with tender shoots of hope.

Indoors, we cheat a little,

thanks to dear friends who send spring

in a basket.

February 27.20

Poor little pansy!

It tried very hard

to bring some springtime

into the yard.

Unabashedly sunny,

its bright shiny face

promised big change

with diminutive grace.

I’d rail at the winter

my dander bestirred,

but I know that the pansies

will have the last word.

 

Thanks yet again to photographer S.W. Berg.

 

February 17.20

The bud inspector

isn’t sure

how long these leaflings

will endure;

a phony spring

bamboozled them

to pop up from

their cozy stem.

He shakes his head

and fears the worst,

spreads his wings

to lift, but first

he chirps a tsk,

consults an app,

and tucks his iphone

under his cap.

 

 

 

January 18.20

Beware the gardener’s itch

to dig in firma terra

lest you be pruned and potted

along with the schefflera.

The gardener cannot help it,

her nails are far too clean,

so kitchen turns to hothouse,

mid-winter turns to green.

 

With more thanks to photographer S.W. Berg

and to indoor/outdoor gardener D.J. Berg

for this testimonial to gardeners’ winter fever.

 

January 12.20

The greening of the lavender

along the garden border

in April welcomed cordially,

in January, out of order.

We’re doused with April showers,

winter coats hang limp in closets;

there’s dank insinuation

that such misplacement posits.

Winter April such as this

seems not at all auspicious;

gardeners grow no seedlings

but only more suspicious.

Winter can be bitter,

and gardeners hate the wait,

but they worry when the earth

seems to de-regulate.

Meanwhile, though, they slog around

amid the muddied swells,

rejoicing through a happy nose:

how good the wet earth smells!

 

 

September 29.19

How thoughtful Nature

to warm our eyes

before the year’s

glacéed demise.

What awesome palette,

it must be told,

that blends tomato

with marigold.

As home décor,

though bright and merry,

by that same Nature,

alas,

temporary.