Turning

Despite the fact that my Summer Shorts project has come to an end, I’ve kept up with snapping a daily photo, and so far have managed to pair each photo with a bit of writing (“Fall Fragments”). No promises (to myself or anyone else) that this will continue so consistently. But somehow it’s a nice habit not to break.

“Turning” was the photo prompt for October 7th. Somehow all the squirrels dashing about in their hunt for winter stores caught my eye. And so a little tanka about the fall activity of these critters.

 

Path lined with chestnuts
prickly shells, shiny brown globes.
Squirrels everywhere.

They dash, climb, chase, leap, scurry.
Winter soon, better hurry!

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This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by 13 and the lovely and clever Irene Latham at Live Your Poem.

 

New beginnings (SJfT)

I begin lots of things. It’s the continuations that I’m concerned about! Three new beginnings that have become a part of my daily life are captured in the photo and poem below:

A Favorite Time of Day

Laptop tucked away
housework keeps till tomorrow.
Now is time to pray

to process joy and sorrow
line-captured while music plays

© 2017 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

My three new 2017 beginnings:

1. Bible Art Journaling
Earlier this spring I discovered Bible art journaling. You could say it was love at first sight.

Doodling, drawing, and lettering in my special journaling Bible has become part of my routine. Several times a week, in the evening when the jobs of the day have been put to bed, I get out my Bible, pens, and supplies, tune in to one of my Spotify play lists (favourites are Audrey Assad , Fernando Ortega, and Andrew Peterson) and meditate / create.

They say that when you work in an area of strength, the activity energizes you. That’s what I find happens when I do this. The day’s fatigue falls away and I am often still going at 10:30 – 11:00—pretty good for someone who wakes up without an alarm just after 5:00 a.m. (though I do often take a daytime nap).

Here’s the project I was working on in the photo (prompted by a Rebekah R. Jones Bible Art Challenge video).

“Be transformed” – a butterfly emerging from a “brain” chrysalis, meant to signify that transformation begins in the mind. (Photo © 2017 by V. Nesdoly)

A chrysalis, before the butterfly comes out. (Photo © 2017 by V. Nesdoly)

A poem I wrote years ago, “Transformation.” I hand-lettered it on tracing paper and added it as a tip-out over the chrysalis drawing. (Photo © 2017 by V. Nesdoly)

2. Taking a photo a day
My camera has been my walking companion since I got my first digital in 2006. Earlier this year I found a website (Capture Your 365 – #CY365) that provides a daily photo prompt. I’ve been snapping photos challenged by those prompts since mid-May. The photo above was prompted by the July 3rd challenge: “A Favorite Time of Day.”

3. Summer Shorts poems
On the first day of summer this year I met with a local poet friend. Among other things, we discussed summer poem-writing. I told her about American Sentences, and she decided to embark on writing “Summer Sentences.” Her decision encouraged me to work on a summer poem project that seemed like it would fit into my life—writing short poems prompted by the daily photos I take. I call my project “Summer Shorts” and the tanka above is one of those.

There you have it—three activities that I’ve not only begun but continued, and that have added much spiritual richness to my 2017!

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This post is linked to Spiritual Journey (first) Thursday, hosted today by Julieanne Harmatz at her blog To Read, To Write, To Be.

 

Dunsmuir Garden

Dunsmuir Garden (Surrey, B.C.) in late June. (Photo © 2016 by V. Nesdoly)

Dunsmuir Garden

Hollyhocks, apples,
lavender, lettuce, Swiss chard
love close company.
Friendships grow across the fence–
thriving in community.

© 2016 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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I haven’t had a garden of pretties and edibles for some years now. We’re not allowed to grow food plants in the garden beds of our townhouse. But if I ever had a food garden again, I’d like it to be a plot in a community garden. There’s something about gardening in community that seems so right!

This post is connected to Poetry Friday, hosted this week by Penny Klosterman at her blog,  Blog-a-penny and her jots.

 

Generous Winter

Branches in frosty bloom (Photo © 2016 by V. Nesdoly)

Spring chooses apple
quince, cherry, plum trees for blooms
but Winter’s crystals,
indiscriminate, flower
any plant whose arms are raised.

© 2016 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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Last weekend we had a few days of gorgeous hoarfrost. This is not usual here so I was thrilled to have my camera along on Sunday when we walked the path at Derby’s Reach and the whole place was like a giant orchard in bloom. Our rains are back now and the frost is long gone… but not before I got a few photos and a poem.

This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today byTabatha Yeatts at her always intriguing blog The Opposite of Indifference.

 

Pivot night

“He gave up his divine privileges … and was born as a human being…” – Philippians 2: 7 NLT (Photo courtesy Pixabay.com)

 

Under ancient curse
Ushered through canal of pain
Tiny, pink, squalling

History pivots, the night
Yahweh incarnates the Star

© 2015 by Violet Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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The daughter of my friend is in labor right now. And so my mind keeps drifting, this Christmas Eve day, to the ignominy of God submitting Himself to the whole pregnancy / birth process that fell under the curse way back in Genesis.

I think the Apostle Paul explains best what really took place in Mary nine months before delivery, culminating with a squalling, pink newborn in her arms that first “Christmas” morning.

May the significance of that event, God’s gift of a Savior as announced by the angels, connect with us these many years later:

“The Savior—yes, the Messiah, the Lord—has been born today in Bethlehem, the city of David! …

Glory to God in highest heaven,
    and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.

Luke 2:11,14 – NLT

 

To all who read here I wish a Blessed and Meaningful Christmas!

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Join us each week at Spiritual Journey Thursday

This post is linked to Spiritual Journey Thursday, hosted by Holly Mueller.  The topic this month is GIFTS.

 

January sunrise

Sunrise – January 21, 2015 (Photo © V. Nesdoly)

Walk in day’s first light
to a wild chorus of birds
sky grows more intense
surroundings come alive as
we stroll under milkshake clouds

© 2015 by V. Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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On clear days it’s so encouraging to see the sky begin to light up as early as 7:15. Spring is on the move!! This photo was taken on Wednesday, January  21st at 7:55 a.m..

We’re back into clouds and monsoons again now. But I console myself with how much longer the days will be when we next see early light under a clear sky. Our local weather lady said the days are getting longer by 2.5 minutes per day right now.

 

January day (for #poetryatworkday)

Shredder fodder – Photo © 2015 by V. Nesdoly

January day
ends in blizzard of white sheets
what keep? what throw out?
slips and papers piled in drifts
shredder working overtime

© 2015 by V. Nesdoly (All rights reserved)

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Someone has dubbed today “Poetry-at-work Day.” I’m good with that. In fact, every day is a good day to blend poetry with work in my books.

“January day” is the product of a new poetry practice I began last summer after being inspired by the tanka in a Dawson Creek park.

Mine are a cross between a journal entry and a poem in this five-line form. I call mine “tanka-type” poems because I usually title them (traditional tanka don’t have titles). This may be the first one of these I’ve posted here.

To bring poetry into my work every day my goal is to write one of these every day, although I don’t usually live up to that and am happy when a week yields two or three. I wrote today’s (a reflection on last night’s file-cleaning) this morning before I even realized it was Poetry-at-work Day.

To see more poetry at work, check out #poetryatworkday on Twitter. Find out about the origin of the day and download some goodies including a book written especially for it at Tweetspeak Poetry.

 

Dawson Trail Tanka (2)

As I mentioned in part 1, Dawson Trail, in Dawson Creek, B.C. is lined with granite boulders that have tanka engraved on them. These poems celebrate the seasons, flowers, birds, and critters of the area. If you missed part 1, it’s HERE.

One of the Dawson Trail tanka in its natural setting

 

Here are four more poems you’ll find on the Dawson Trail. If they leave you shivering, just know that winter is long in these northern parts. It’s no wonder the cold gets an extra poem or two.

Fawn, seen on one of our drives in the Dawson Creek area. (Mother and Fawn #1 were too quick for my camera.)

 

 

Dawson Trail in winter

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As I mentioned in the last tanka post, I don’t know who wrote these poems. Will give credit if/when I discover their author.

Poetry authored by Donna Kane, Marilyn Belak, Megan Kane, and Rebekah Rempel.  A big thanks to reader Donna Smith who unearthed this document with the information about the poetry stones and their authors (p. 17).

This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted this week by MsMac at Check It Out.

 

 

 

 

Dawson Trail Tanka (1)

Dawson Creek – Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway

We got back from our vacation in Dawson Creek, B.C. at the end of July. Dawson Creek is a town in northeast B.C. Near Alberta’s western boundary, it is Mile 0 of the Alaska Highway. Our daughter’s family moved there some months ago, and this was our second visit (the first was this winter/spring).

One of the things hubby and I like to do every day at home or on holiday is walk. Though I explored part of the Dawson Trail earlier in the snow, my broken hip brought an end to that. Now that I’m walking again and it’s summer, I was able to explore the full length of this trail that follows Dawson Creek’s meander through town.

Part of the trail is lined with granite boulders onto which poems have been engraved. I found eight of these. All the poems are tanka, celebrating the seasons, flowers, birds and critters of the area.

I’m posting four of these today and will do the next four in another post soon. I hope you enjoy this taste of the four seasons of northeast B.C.

Tanka stone on the Dawson Trail

 

 

 

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I wish I knew who wrote these delightful poems. If I find out, I will certainly give credit.

Poetry authored by Donna Kane, Marilyn Belak, Megan Kane, and Rebekah Rempel.  A big thanks to reader Donna Smith who unearthed this document  (p. 17) with the information about the poetry stones and their authors.

This post is linked to Poetry Friday, hosted today by Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge.

Oops, change of plans. Robyn is injured and so that Poetry Friday doesn’t have to go missing, Irene Latham at Live Your Poem has taken up the slack. Thank you, Irene!

 

 

parallel community

brown flits across path
hedge sparrow on an errand
black-capped chickadee
flips pine-tree acrobatics
instant later disappears

starlings group frantic
lift and land in unison
as if organized
by a choreographer
while I stay on the outside

living parallel
to seagulls, robins, flickers
watch them from below
I’m nonentity in their
rarified community

© 2011 by Violet Nesdoly

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This is poem is written and presented for the Tweetspeak prompt “Look Up, (and Don’t Blush)” which challenges: “Could you find a poem by looking up? If so, post your link on our Facebook Wall by Wednesday, November 16th, for links and possible feature here, at The High Calling, or at Every Day Poems. “