September

Barbara Crooker’s Poem of the Month is SMALL STANZAS IN AUTUMN.  Her home page can be viewed HERE.

*

Carol Purington’s haiku are featured this month at Mann Library’s Daily Haiku.  More information is also available at Woodslawn Farm.

*

Haiku and Tanka by Carol Purington

These poems by Carol Purington first appeared on this site on March 22, 2011.  Please visit Woodslawn Farm for more information about her work.

Earth’s roll:
tractor and plow turn over
a new spring

 

Bounded by strand
above strand of song
– the robin’s acre

 

Sudden shower –
leaving open the window
nearest the lilacs

 

Tell me how
the sky’s color is changed
by a cello note
and I will sing you
a sunrise

Faith
the shine of a firefly
in my room
the shape of a hermit’s hut
beside a mountain path 

 *

Haiku are from FAMILY FARM Haiku for a Place of Moons,
by Carol Purington.  Winfred Press (1999, 2015).

Haiku and tanka are copyrighted by Carol Purington.

The cover of Family Farm is featured in the first Gallery of Cover Art at The Haiku Foundation, which I helped begin.

*

Poem by Carol Purington

The blue pitcher
that came with white lilacs and tears –
his beautiful woodwork

by Carol Purington
All Rights Reserved

Carol was inspired by my photo from the (Extra)ordinary WordPress Photo Challenge.

My post from Poems From Oostburg, Wisconsin, which links to the WordPress challenge, may be read HERE.

For more information about Carol Purington’s poetry and books, please visit her page at Woodslawn Farm.

Ellen Grace Olinger

Creative Notes

reading a new book
of poems by Luci Shaw
with a cup of decaff
on my little table
I find myself
saying grace again

* * *
SCAPE poems
LUCI SHAW
Cascade Books * Eugene, Oregon
2013

Foreward By Eugene Peterson

This is a poem I wrote in 2014.  I often return to Luci Shaw’s books.

*
You may also wish to see the posts Bittersweet by Carol Purington and Merrill Ann Gonzales, and also A Tanrenga by Merrill Gonzales and Carol Purington, at my site, Grief And Acceptance.

Carol Purington’s poetry page at the Woodslawn Farm site may be read HERE.

*
Ellen Grace Olinger

lights on the water

Karl and I saw hay bales in fields yesterday, and I remembered this poem from June 2013 on my site, Poems From Oostburg, Wisconsin.

lights on the water
perhaps a fisherman
checking conditions

long conversations
with old and new friends
in my mind for days

hay bales in the fields
not realizing before
how it grows . . .

I also recall Woodslawn Farm, the Purington family website from Colrain, MA.  Carol Purington and I have been corresponding for many years.   She also has a poetry page at the family website.

Three Tanka By Carol Purington is a post on this site, from August 2012.

The pictures are by Ida Waugh, and courtesy of Reusable Art.

sun-warmth

sun-warmth
and my mind rests
robins teach me their song

Ellen Grace Olinger

* * *

Please visit Woodslawn Farm for an Early Spring selection of poems by Carol Purington.

* * *
The photo is courtesy of wpclipart.

A few Monday blessings

“Summery Tanka” by Carol Purington at Woodslawn Farm.

The Lyric, edited by Jean Mellichamp Milliken.  This poetry print journal has been publishing traditional poetry since 1921.  Please visit their website for more information.  I’m reading many poems aloud.

I learned of The Lyric years ago from Time Of Singing, edited by Lora Homan Zill.  I am also rereading TOS as I look forward to the next issue.  Rereading poetry brings much peace and beauty to my days.  Sometimes I return to a poem I read years ago, and it’s like hearing from an old friend again.

Many of the peonies in our area are bowed down by the rain.  Ours have not bloomed yet, with the cooler weather by Lake Michgian.  The photos by Karl are from July 2011.  There have almost always been peonies where I have lived.  My parents had white, pink, and red peonies.