Tuesday Slice of Life

           Visit Two Writing Teachers every Tuesday to read everyone's posts! Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Beth and Anna, we keep going!

          I'm continuing to write haiku and haiku-related poetry this month. See below. 
           Some of us are sharing on twitter with the hashtag #DigiPoetry, created by Margaret Simon, of Reflections on The Teche. Please join us. Find the many Poetry Month offerings rounded up by Jama Rattigan at Jama's Alphabet Soup.  

            A large part of my life is observing, children, of course, but this time I'm thinking of nature. I grew up with all grandparents teaching me about the out of doors whether it was farm things like herding sheep, gathering eggs and feeding chickens, gardening, picking potato bugs off the plants or watching birds and stars at night, noticing when ladybugs arrived in spring. I still do. This month I've written from noticings, from trying out connections that I might not have imagined before. I'm pretty good at imagining things, talking animals, etc. 



           When leaving school on Sunday afternoon after a few hours of work, I saw this hawk sitting atop one of the lampposts. There is a tree to the side of the lot, but as you can see, not as tall as the lamp post. We have some trees on our grounds, but not many. We do have a wetlands over a small berm next to the school's property, and then a large park. We are lucky to have it. That also means that we have lots of birds, my favorite red-winged blackbirds, chickadees, magpies, killdeer and hawks, more than one species. They sometimes fly around the school as if it's their personal race course. This day, a quieter day on Sunday, the hawk sat, waiting for a meal, waiting for something. He sat for at least 15 minutes. I was surprised, and grateful for the chance to sit quietly and notice.

 19)  

hawk settles

lamppost, no pines -

pavement, no mice 

 Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved