August Poetry Postcard Poems: 8/10 - 12

These daily postcard poems have been an interesting experience for me.  The spirit of the poems is in the moment.  These are meant to be written fresh, each day, inspired by something in the immediate environment or on the postcard picture and written/sent without a typical poetry revision process.  So they are significantly more 'raw' that work I generally share.

Some of the pieces are poems I will continue to develop after the poetry postcards are completed.  Others will likely remain only as brief meditations/snapshots of a moment in time and not returned to.  This does not lessen their value to me in any way.  So much of what I write is part of the process of writing.  Like a musician's practice scales, meant to enhance skill and push learning; useful for its own sake.  Even in the absence of a project such as this, I often write morning pages.  The daily free writes help me limber my 'writing muscles' and help me get into the flow for my work.


Early Morning, Chesapeake Bay

Boats steam by in a stuttering
parade, sails furled against
August duldrums.  High tide
laps at the bulkhead, dainty
as a mother cat.  Nine years
ago, Isabel roared through
this sleepy place, swallowing
sand and rip rap, house and car
in one enormous gulp.  Each Spring
Osprey rebuild their nests
on higher ground.

Dragonflies skim the water's skin,

wings shedding sunlight

as they fly.  The drone

of bees lulls afternoon

blooms to sleep.  The dog

drowses in a shady spot,

paws twitching, dreaming

of the endless chase.

When she wakes

it is August, still.

Irony in the Garden

City mouse chases

squirrels from the tomato plants,

dead heads basil flowers,

counts the purple nubs

of infant eggplants, all

before her morning coffee.