Poet's narcisssus

(I think.)

Happy Spring

Impatiens/impatience

Premium T. was right. The replacement flowers are indeed impatiens. But they're looking a little small and lonely so far.

Grow, grow!

When Spring arrives, the winter pansies are retired

Before

After

The pitfalls of corporate landscaping. No doubt the pansies (or violas) will be replaced. But where did they go?

Not quite the carpet I imagined...

...but the crocuses I planted in 2007 are beginning to appear.

Saturday scenes

Ice patterns on the windshield. I was waiting in the car for a ride downtown to do some shopping. On our way, we saw a bus, and I switched over to mass transit. It was very mass.

It's rare that you can look out and see this much snow.

On the way home, my bus couldn't make it up the hill, so I walked the icy sidewalks with my fragile packages, and made it home just as the next snow began to fall.

A little white lightness

I love the way snow changes the landscape, but I also love the brightness it brings.

I can't drive in it, but I don't have a car this weekend anyway.

Show me the colors!

I love the fall colors.

Riding up the hill today, I was seeing clouds of bright yellow leaves. But I needed to hurry and pick up my daughter, so I didn't stop to snap a picture. By the time I took these, that brilliant golden sunlight had set a little too far in the west. But it's still glorious.

This afternoon, I found myself deep into questioning mode. Again. And then I realized, "This is great!" Maybe not fun—but if those questions can lead me to some new places... For me, the trick is to follow them without feeling overwhelmed.

In the meantime, writing is always good.

For Dail...

On my way to the farmers' market, I sawIt reminded me of my friend Dail, who picked up a similar "pet" on her wild ride across the country.

You do not need to adjust your screen

April 19th, on Seattle's Capitol Hill

Earlier, in a brief weather lull (with sunglasses!), I hurried over to Open Books and brought home an armload of poetry. My future is looking like Robert Hass, Osip Mandelstam, Paal-Helge Haugen, and more Tracie K. Smith.

Meanwhile, I'm going through Furious Lullaby again, and it has inspired me in a completely new direction on my main manuscript project. I am so excited that I wrote drafts, very rough drafts, of 12 poems, with ideas for several more. And that's the great thing (I think) about inspiration: No matter how much I aspire to write like someone else, it will always be different, will arrive, sooner or later, in my voice.

Who inspires you to write?

On the way home from the bus stop

Even in the rain

Poet Narcissus? (!)

I thought these came only in purple!

Bloom-a-palooza

Springing

I swear I am not making this up

No stopping!

(The movie crew has come to town.)

Today's meta moment

Mmm... well, not yet

How much is too much?

The full woman begs,

Not another bite.

The hungry one says,

Bring on the cheese.

from "Seven Sins, Eight Questions."

Making cheese at Beechers' in the Market, Seattle.

Now that's a lotta dough

What we can see

When the trees let their leaves down,
they show themselves. Bare.
The cloak of summer green goes

and anyone can see the ruckus
of limbs grown akimbo
like a story poorly told
with lots of starting over.

You can spot the scrappy nests
left from other summers,
years of bad pruning.

And they let the leaves go

so that the wind can pass.

Winter rose

Yes...Really...Here...Now

The season's first snow.

Here, the first snow might be the only snow, so we enjoy it while we can.