How can it be Christmas Eve already?  This Friday Buffy at Buffy Silverman is hosting us. She's sharing her poetry gift from her Winter Swap and her poetic response.

one candle flickers
the light shines in the darkness
while we wait with hope

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For those of you, who celebrate, Merry Christmas.

Earlier this week, I posted the #inktober and #poemtober for Days 8 through 13 on Instagram.  Today I have Days 14 and 15 for Poetry Friday.  I admit both were a challenge, one more than the other for an autumnal theme.  

Day 14: tick
ancient clock
midnight spooky time
tick, tick, tock

Day 15: helmet
in  the field
crow on a helmet
not afraid

©Jone Rush MacCulloch

Today Irene at Live Your Poem is hosting us in the Poetry Friday community.  And she's sharing a great opportunity that will be available in 2022.
And she has a gorgeous autumn poem.  I love this line: "how time eats daylight." It's a great mystery.

I've been attempting to be intentional in writing a haiku each day in response to the #inktober prompt. October 6 was "spirits" and October 7 is "fan".

cirrus clouds
wrap the Hunter's Moon
night spirits

 ©Jone Rush MacCulloch

nature's fans
float on autumn's breeze
lucky day

 ©Jone Rush MacCulloch


*ginko biloba
​It is a sign of luck to catch a leaf as it falls.

 My goal this month is to return to the practice of daily small poems.  Some years it's been called #Poemtober.  I am using the #Inktober words for inspritation. On a walk this week, I took this photo.

I am playing with two versions.

leaf shadow
after the rain
memory

©Jone Rush MacCulloch
memory
after the rain
leaf shadow

©Jone Rush MacCulloch

The first word for #Inktober is 'crystal'.

​crystal stars
shimmer on the lake
wish makers
©Jone Rush MacCulloch

Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone has the Poetry Friday this week. She's thinking about summer using the mento text from Pat Schneider’s The Moon, Ten Times.  It sparked a a poem for me.

Welcome to Poetry Friday. Today, Margaret at Reflections on the Teche, is sharing a fabulous project  as a result of COVID and writing through the Ethical ELA.  Go check it our along with all the other fabulous poetry in our world.

BTW, #poetryeverywhere is from a Naomi Shihab Nye quote, "See poetry everywhere." 
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I almost didn't post this week. Sometimes I take July off from blogging.  This little haiku has bee rumbling in my head since the photo last Sunday.  I am in love with this sky and sunset.  So many textures.

Welcome to Poetry Friday.  We are so close to half way through the year.  Does anyone know how to slow down time? This week Buffy at Buffy Silverman is sharing observations and thoughts about spring time.  I love her photos and what she has cerated with the word 'time'.

Summer means swapping poetry with others.  This past week, I had poetry mail from Tabatha. She has a teaser in her post for Mary Lee a couple weeks ago. Blessings. They are rather fun to write.  This blessing from Tabatha speaks to anyone cultivating words. Yesterday I started collecting the poems that have lived on my blogs since 2006 and it indeed felt like I was a standing in a poem garden,

A blessing for those who cultivate words
by Tabatha Yeatts 
for Jone
 
May the sun find your seeds 
and rain settle on your sprouts 
and may you pick the weeds
of distraction and fear 
from around your precious seedlings.
 
May you invite birds to sing 
on your branches, bees to 
circle your blossoms, and 
praying mantises to stoutly 
guard your growth.
 
May your fingers be nimble
as you stand before rows of bushes,
ripe with the fruit of your imagination.
 
May your feet tread 
gently but firmly as you walk 
the dirt paths between these overflowing bushes,
​holding your words in your hands, 
your pockets, and cradled 
in the bottom of your shirt.
 
May you find the few you need
on the sparse bush that holds words
for hard times, for times when silence
and togetherness
are most necessary.
 
May you stand before 
the one you never 
thought would bear fruit 
and feel the joyous
bewilderment 
of seeing more than you can hold.

My response:
seeds of sprouts
nimble with imagination-
your blossoms

walk dirty paths
hold words in silence
feel joyous

~jone rush macculloch, 2021 draft

I have been taking classes in mixed media through Jennifer Chamberlin.  She had a two part class, Night Watch.  I also committed to sending out three "art poetry postcards" for National Poetry Month. So I combined the two.  This week has been the pink supermen which influenced my haiku.

I am laughing at myself because when I shared collage books with students, I always said I would never do collage because of the time.  Guess what?  I think this extremely relaxing.

Wow! This week.  Thank you pollens for being so high and causing itchy eyes, asthma, and tiredness. UGH!  So today, four poems.  Three a series on the Junco nest in my hanging flower pot. One for Earth Day.

Earth Day has always been special to me. Everyday should be earth day.  This is a photo I took last week when visiting a college friend.

Welcome to 2021 National Poetry Month. It's my fifteenth year of participating (some years better than others).  
This year I'm taking a look at some previous poems that I enjoyed and will be revising.  Some have been on the blog before and others not.  
I have  five great interviews lined up:
April 2 POETRY FRIDAY: ALLAN WOLF
April 9 POETRY FRIDAY: LISA FIPPS
April 16 POETRY FRIDAY: CHRIS BARON
April 23 POETRY FRIDAY:
​JOANNE ROSSMASSLER FRITZ
April 30 POETRY FRIDAY: LITA  JUDGE

I love getting books into the hands of readers so there will be prizes for stopping by and saying hi.
So my April Poetry Project is to revisit and redux some previous poems.  I am not totally feeling it!
So I am changing it up. I am going to revise and redux some poems and sprinkle in new poems with it.  Today's is a response to the "Verse of Ages" prompt on April 15: 'essence'.  It gives me an opportunity to play with my Scottish Gaelic.

Outside  my writing room hangs a flower basket. The juncos have moved in.  As I thought about the word essence, I thought of the care of their young.

bidh eòin a ’biathadh cnuimhean
dha na leanaban aca
brìgh gaoil
© jone rush macculloch, draft

​Translation
birds feed worms 
to their babies
essence of love
© jone rush macculloch, draft

​