poetry and me

2011-12-26T09:07:00.001-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends.

2011-11-24T12:15:00.002-05:00

Autumn Movement
by Carl Sandburg

I cried over beautiful things knowing no beautiful thing lasts.
The field of cornflower yellow is a scarf at the neck
of the copper sunburned woman,
the mother of the year, the taker of seeds.

The northwest wind comes
and the yellow is torn full of holes,
new beautiful things come in the first spit of snow
on the northwest wind, and the old things go,
not one lasts.

2011-11-17T11:01:00.000-05:00

Earth and sky, woods and fields,
lakes and rivers,
the mountain and the sea,
are excellent schoolmasters,
and teach some of us more
than we can ever learn
from books.

~John Lubbock

Cutouts in Nature

2011-11-13T11:11:00.000-05:00

Lest We Forget

2011-11-11T10:45:00.000-05:00

In Flanders Fields

by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies grow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place, and in the sky,
The larks, still bravely singing, fly,
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead; short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe!
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high!
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

2011-10-17T20:04:00.000-04:00

2011-10-10T17:42:00.000-04:00

Nature never goes out of style.

Look to the sky

2011-10-09T11:44:00.000-04:00

2011-10-06T20:34:00.001-04:00

"The pleasant air and wind,
with sacred thoughts do
feed my serious mind."

- Rowland Watkyns, The Poet's Soliloquy

2011-10-05T16:50:00.000-04:00

"If you truly love Nature, you will find beauty everywhere."

- Vincent Van Gogh

Web Design

2011-08-29T19:22:00.001-04:00

2011-08-29T16:16:00.002-04:00

we take
a needed break
and blend into the day--

just the two of us.... me and my

shadow

2011-08-24T18:21:00.000-04:00

2011-08-09T11:44:00.000-04:00

the kids have gone back home

and we move quietly through the day

each one in their own trail of thought

even Biz waits in front of the door

wondering when they will return

the beds are changed

except for the room where the granddaughters slept

i snuggle in and feel their presence still

and think how long it will be before they come

to visit us again..... and how they will have grown

my son pulls at my heartstrings... i found myself

staring at him constantly,

looking for a part of Dad, a part of me....

he is who we were and we are what he will be.....

i said i wouldn't cry when they left.... and i didn't

no tears that you could see....

carol bleichert ~ aug.2011

Nature's calligraphy

2011-07-24T13:09:00.000-04:00

2011-07-22T10:58:00.000-04:00

i like
this fluff and stuff
it's just so frivolous
the lightness of its being is
carefree

2011-07-21T15:56:00.000-04:00

Flowers... are a proud assertion
that a ray of beauty outvalues
all the utilities of the world.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

2011-07-18T17:04:00.003-04:00

the day
ends in a mood
spreading its gloominess--
nature's tears rain down stifling the
sun's rays

2011-07-14T07:56:00.002-04:00

birthing
of a new day
baby swallows look about
eager to begin their journey
they will fly away to return
to the little birdhouse
in our backyard
next year

2011-07-06T14:37:00.000-04:00

"Like a great poet,
Nature knows how to produce
the greatest effects with the most limited means."

- Heinrich Heine

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CANADA

2011-07-01T09:55:00.000-04:00

look to the sky

2011-06-24T19:28:00.001-04:00

2011-06-22T22:26:00.000-04:00

People from a planet without flowers
would think we must be mad with joy
the whole time to have such things about us.
~Iris Murdoch

HAPPY FATHERS DAY

2011-06-19T13:21:00.002-04:00

Dad, your guiding hand on my shoulder will remain with me forever.

2011-05-27T16:27:00.000-04:00

we stroll
country gardens
birds and blooms fill the day
they're impatient with Springs delay--
birdhouses fill with nesting straw
the nursery
awaits

2011-05-22T17:18:00.000-04:00

color
has taken hold
so bold and beautiful
and it's only the beginning--
it's Spring

look to the sky

2011-05-14T12:39:00.000-04:00

2011-04-18T19:52:00.001-04:00

It's spring fever.
That is what the name of it is.
And when you've got it,
you want - oh, you don't quite know
what it is you do want,
but it just fairly makes
your heart ache,
you want it so!
~Mark Twain

Look to the sky

2011-03-25T19:47:00.001-04:00

2011-03-20T20:57:00.000-04:00

tree trunks
and last year's leaves
green moss shows everywhere
our strides are slow as we breathe deep--
fresh air

2011-02-20T17:06:00.000-05:00

Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius. ~Pietro Aretino

Symbols of Winter

2011-02-07T18:21:00.001-05:00

2011-02-06T20:02:00.000-05:00

The color of springtime is in the flowers,
the color of winter is in the imagination.
~Terri Guillemets

2011-02-06T19:51:00.000-05:00

Winter either bites with its teeth or lashes with its tail. ~Proverb

2011-01-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

I like these cold, gray winter days.
Days like these let you savor a bad mood.
~Bill Watterson

2011-01-13T19:40:00.000-05:00

Of winter's lifeless world each tree
now seems a perfect part;
yet each one holds summer's secret
deep down within its heart.
~Charles G. Stater

2011-01-11T18:09:00.000-05:00

Oh! the snow, the beautiful snow,
Filling the sky and earth below,
Over the housetops, over the street,
Over the heads of the people you meet.
Dancing,
Flirting,
Skimming along.
-Thomas J. Watson

2011-01-09T19:30:00.001-05:00

Every winter,
When the great sun has turned his face away,
The earth goes down into a vale of grief,
And fasts, and weeps, and shrouds herself in sables,
Leaving her wedding-garlands to decay -
Then leaps in spring to his returning kisses.

~Charles Kingsley

2011-01-08T22:21:00.000-05:00

Every mile is two in winter. ~George Herbert

Point Pelee

2011-01-07T12:33:00.000-05:00

"There is nothing in the world more beautiful
than the forest clothed to its very hollows in snow.
It is the still ecstasy of nature, wherein every spray,
every blade of grass, every spire of reed,
every intricacy of twig, is clad with radiance."
- William Sharp

Winter

2011-01-05T12:02:00.003-05:00

There is a privacy about it
which no other season gives you....
In spring, summer and fall
people sort of have an open season
on each other;
only in the winter, in the country,
can you have long, quiet stretches
when you can savor
belonging to yourself.
~Ruth Stout

At the Point

2010-12-30T19:33:00.000-05:00

2010-12-27T17:21:00.001-05:00

the cold
snaps me to my senses--
reality

2010-12-26T19:05:00.004-05:00

early afternoon and still no sun, it's cold
we walk the beach and meet no one
in the sky a gaggle of geese honk by
but then they're gone
it's quiet now....... there is no sun, it's cold
-- carol bleichert

2010-12-21T15:03:00.001-05:00

Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories
and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year
for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas-time.
~Laura Ingalls Wilder

2010-12-13T19:38:00.001-05:00

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world,
and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.
~Norman Vincent Peale

2010-12-05T21:37:00.000-05:00

Autumn days

2010-11-22T12:59:00.001-05:00

I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its tone is mellower, its colours are richer, and it is tinged with a little sorrow. Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and its content.
Lin Yutang

being creative

2010-11-12T22:44:00.000-05:00

2010-11-05T22:21:00.001-04:00

A walk through the neighborhood

2010-10-29T19:47:00.000-04:00

Autumn

2010-10-22T07:39:00.001-04:00

Colors embrace us and emotions

whirl into a pirouette of delight -- carol bleichert

2010-10-02T15:04:00.000-04:00

Sunday at Point Pelee

2010-09-30T20:02:00.001-04:00

My little visitor

2010-09-13T21:58:00.001-04:00

A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. ~Chinese Proverb

2010-08-24T20:28:00.000-04:00

2010-07-30T21:28:00.003-04:00

there are mornings
she reaches for the sun
and opens to the beauty of the day

there are mornings she's limp
slowly her day drains away

© carol bleichert

colors gone wild

2010-07-13T22:26:00.000-04:00

2010-06-30T13:46:00.000-04:00

One of the most attractive things about the flowers is their beautiful reserve.
-Henry David Thoreau

2010-06-18T22:00:00.002-04:00

we're having a garden party
everyone's invited
dressed in their finest
the debutantes have blossomed
ablush with the moment
we admire the beauty of it all

© carol bleichert

2010-06-08T15:06:00.000-04:00

Everything is blooming most recklessly;
if it were voices instead of colors,
there would be an unbelievable shrieking
into the heart of the night.

-Rainer Maria Rilke

2010-06-03T20:45:00.001-04:00

To find the universal elements enough;
to find the air and the water exhilarating;
to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter...
to be thrilled by the stars at night;
to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring -
these are some of the rewards of the simple life.
~John Burroughs

Look to the Sky

2010-05-27T22:39:00.001-04:00

Sometimes

2010-05-25T13:59:00.000-04:00

I like my world in black & white

Look to the sky

2010-05-23T21:22:00.000-04:00

2010-05-10T16:28:00.000-04:00

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden,
but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~Minnie Aumonier

Happy Mother's Day

2010-05-09T18:41:00.001-04:00

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.
~George Cooper

a walk in the park

2010-05-08T08:20:00.000-04:00

Treasures of the day

2010-05-02T20:34:00.000-04:00

In the morning

2010-05-01T17:54:00.004-04:00

Look to the Sky

2010-04-30T12:33:00.000-04:00

2010-04-29T15:17:00.003-04:00

The oaks and the pines, and their brethren of the wood, have seen so many suns rise and set, so many seasons come and go, and so many generations pass into silence, that we may well wonder what "the story of the trees" would be to us if they had tongues to tell it, or we ears fine enough to understand. ~Author Unknown, quoted in Quotations for Special Occasions by Maud van Buren, 1938

2010-04-28T14:07:00.001-04:00

Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words.
They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all for the beauty of their character,
though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning. ~Lydia M. Child

Look to the sky...

2010-04-24T10:57:00.000-04:00

Celebrating Earth Day

2010-04-22T13:40:00.003-04:00

away

from city lawns

2010-04-20T21:53:00.004-04:00

2010-04-19T21:32:00.000-04:00

we're caught
in Nature's aura
and mystical moments

2010-04-18T17:27:00.002-04:00

bare trees
in graceful form
branches like angel's hair
wait to be adorned for Summer's
season

look to the sky

2010-04-16T10:49:00.001-04:00

April 2

2010-04-02T07:48:00.004-04:00

when the inner child weeps

melancholia
I like that word
it sounds old
like magnolia
and I feel old today

a weeping willow
limbs flailing in dispair
wild hair
but I can't cry
my lips shape into an O
but I can't scream
I depend on rain for tears
and wind to wail my pain
and today I am waiting
for a storm

carol bleichert 4/02/2010

April is Poetry Month

2010-04-01T19:40:00.015-04:00

the ocean takes on a mood

numinous to passersby

we gather in a congregation
beneath an indigo sky
to watch the egg yolk yellow sun
change to a an earthy rust
and even tho we want to stay
she punctuates the horizon
to end the day

carol bleichert

2010-03-22T17:17:00.001-04:00

Springtime is a constant
giving all a fresh start--
the beauty of each day is in
living

Brushstrokes in the Sky

2010-03-20T15:51:00.000-04:00

2010-01-18T17:37:00.000-05:00

today
i am the fog
caught up in winter's gloom

A Refreshing Season

2010-01-17T11:51:00.003-05:00

in my
white winterworld
emotions crisp and cold
it's the one place i can't feel-- my
sadness

2010-01-10T21:12:00.002-05:00

winter's
shock therapy
jolts my sensibilities
like ice cubes sliding down my spine--
IT'S COLD!

2010-01-01T00:16:00.000-05:00

STANDING TALL

2009-12-28T12:08:00.001-05:00

in a shadow

2009-12-24T20:04:00.001-05:00

I know

Santa likes a tall glass of milk
and Christmas cookies on a dish,
a pretty napkin soft as silk.

Santa likes a tall glass of milk
I know first hand what suits his ilk,
he whispered in my ear his wish.

Santa likes a tall glass of milk
and Christmas cookies on a dish.

by Carol Bleichert

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE

2009-11-23T19:41:00.003-05:00

I have never seen
an ugly tree--
tall / lanky
short / fat
with or without leaves
they are all beautiful to me

We all

2009-11-22T15:15:00.007-05:00

we all
pass through this life
not unscathed/sometimes deep scars
layers of living and dying--
remains

2009-11-19T19:33:00.000-05:00

uncomplicated

2009-11-18T17:05:00.004-05:00

a damaged milkweed bleeds
white milky juice flows forth--
but at seasons end swollen pods burst
and bare their seeds
covered in silky hair

2009-11-17T19:23:00.002-05:00

fog wraps around the day
waves lazily lick the sand
Fall has taken a pause
from a hectic season

2009-11-16T18:19:00.003-05:00

milkweed
have shed their seed
and hang in disarray
the result of a one time stand--
seasoned

Lest We Forget

2009-11-11T10:52:00.001-05:00

look to the sky

2009-03-26T13:32:00.000-04:00

2009-03-24T17:23:00.001-04:00

winter
in a slow fade
snow lay in shady spots...
the end of March still chills our bones--
Spring waits

2009-03-19T20:28:00.001-04:00

so cold
germs froze mid-air
leaving us in the chill--
we made it through winter with no
sniffles

2009-03-16T15:28:00.002-04:00

through-out
the snow clad day
bare spots from a slow melt
green - umber - brown and tawny tan--
revealing