NaPoWriMo--DAY TWENTY SIX

NaPoWriMo PROMPT: For this prompt, you will need to fill out, in five minutes or less, the following “Almanac Questionnaire.” Then, use your responses as to basis for a poem.

The Wendigo

Whiteout

Snowing. No, a blizzard 

Five days of blizzard. 

Earl has been gone for three. 

Went off through the evergreens 

Leaving me in this reeking cabin 

With a barrel of pinto beans, 

A hind quarter of frozen moose, 

A bag of dog food, 

And two sled dogs. 

My dreams of 

Being eaten alive by wolves 

Have returned. 

Seeing those huge tracks 

By the junk cars in town 

Didn’t help. 

I’m supposed to be 

Guarding our stash of beaver pelts. 

What a joke. 

The newspaper left by 

Crazy Harlan 

Was full of conspiracies 

About poison snow. 

And an escaped llama 

That shut down the Juneau Airport. 

After he took off for Fairbanks 

I saw he’d written “I wish I was Banksy” 

On our barn wall. 

Maybe he will send me a letter. 

"The weather is fine in Cancun." 

I’ll send him a postcard of a moose. 

So I sit here dressed in layers 

Of wool sweaters and fleece 

Listening to the howling wind 

Or howling wolves 

I can’t tell. 

It’s grim. 

I cheer myself up by remembering 

Playing in the river 

When I was a kid. 

Then I think about 

The Kraken. 

And then The Wendigo, 

The cannibal monster 

That lives in the north woods. 

And what if this whole world 

Is really just a snow globe. 

And the sky is a glass dome 

And someone is getting ready 

To drop and break it?

NaPoWriMo--DAY NINETEEN

NaPoWriMo PROMPT: write a poem based on a “walking archive.” What’s that? Well, it’s when you go on a walk and gather up interesting thing – a flower, a strange piece of bark, a rock. This then becomes your “walking archive” – the physical instantiation of your walk.

Shooting Birds--19 April 2020 

All winter long 

The usual birds 

Who never make the long trip south. 

When summer ends, when cold winds blow 

When rivers freeze

 Magpie 

Pigeon

Sparrow 

Crow

 And don’t forget the chickadees. 

They endure the months of snow. 

In March 

When winter starts to go 

We hear the doves 

Then

 Flickers 

Blackbirds 

And we know 

It’s spring when

 There are

 Robins.

 Robins overflow. 

Today 

Out on the lake

 I saw loons

 The hawks are back.

 Kingfishers too. 

Osprey 

Swallows

 Duck

 Duck

 Goose.

(all my photos--most taken today--19 March 2020)

NaPoWriMo--DAY EIGHT

NapoWriPo PROMPT: Peruse the work of one or more of these twitter bots, and use a line or two, or a phrase or even a word that stands out to you, as the seed for your own poem.

Crazy Man Dies*

I met a traveler dressed in camo green. 

His two vast legs had pockets down each side. 

His rifle was a cold killing machine. 

His sneering face had greenish paint applied. 

I asked him why he wore the combat gear.
“I’m hunting fuzzy wabbits in the wood,
Or maybe just a porcupine or deer..
But right now a loo would do me good.” 

I said, “You think out here you’ll find a loo?
Ask any bear around and he will say;
‘Right on the ground is where you leave your poo.
It greens the grass as soon as it decays.' " 

He wrinkled up his lip just like a king.
“If I did that may lightning strike me dead.”
A cloud let loose and struck him with a zing.
Nothing beside remains but melted lead.

*Ozymandias--(see what I did there?)

NaPoWriMo--DAY SEVEN

NapoWriPo PROMPT: Today our prompt is an oldie-but-goodie: a poem based on a news article.

Two Thousand Ducks 

At a fancy South Africa winery estate 

They’ve hired a force of two thousand ducks. 

Do they sample wine with discerning tongues? 

Do they know Sauvignons from Merlo deluxe? 

No, they join in a daily duck parade 

And march all the way to the vineyard fields. 

There they gobble up bugs and snails and pests 

To protect vine growth and improve the yield. 

They’re allowed to poop as much as they like. 

The soil is improved by the poultry muck. 

So if your Chardonnay has a hint of dung, 

Don’t turn up your nose, just blame the ducks.

NaPoWriMo--Day One

NaPoWriMo Prompt:  I’d like to challenge you to write a self-portrait poem in which you make a specific action a metaphor for your life .

It Needs Something 

My life is a bad movie. 

Not much drama, 
Lacking in plot.

A lot of stale jokes, 

I do my own stunts. 

Then there’s an earthquake. 

It snows. 

And a moose wanders 

Though the yard. 

I need to get new writers.

NaPoWriMo --Early Bird

NaPoWriMo PROMPT:  And now, in the spirit of an early-bird prompt, I’d like to invite you to write a poem about your favorite bird.

Trumpeter Swans

Wedging their way

Across an ice blue sky,

Silvery trumpeters

Announce
 Approaching spring

With their clarion call.

GRAND TETON PHOTOGRAPHY

DH and I decided to go to Grand Teton National Park the first Saturday in October to find out if we could hear the bull elk bugle.

The autumn weather had deteriorated into winter very early.  So there was snow on the highway as we went up Teton Pass.  It wasn’t deep or icy but a wakeup to what we would see at lower elevations in a few weeks.  We got into the park so early there wasn’t even a ranger at the entrance booth to check us in.  It was just very dark.

So dark we almost ran over a pronghorn who was out looking for some early breakfast.

 Sunrise was just beginning when we reached String Lake parking lot.  We weren’t alone.  There were others with cameras and tripods probably there for the same reason we were.

   Daylight let us see that new snow had frosted the mountains and trees.  The sunrise turned the snow lavender and then pink.  We listened for elk and heard almost nothing.  Finally we heard some bugling far away from the lake.  The big bulls were cold and not in the mood for love.

But that was okay since the scenery was outstanding.  The air was so still the water in the lake was a mirror for the forest and the grand peaks.  The high fog lifted just enough for us to see the mountain tops and the reflected sunlight.

We took the trail to Leigh Lake far enough we could see Mount Moran and its quiet reflection in the water.  The beauty was mind-boggling.

I shot photo after photo as the morning slowly burned off the mist on the peaks.

The changing angle of the sunrise and the moving clouds enhanced every view.

We went back to Jenny Lake where the sights were just as scenic and amazing.

It was very much worth the early rising and the dark drive to see such magnificence.

Even leaves on the path were picturesque.

So we didn’t see or hear much from the elk but we did see a few birds like this Clark's nutcracker trying to catch a few warm rays of sunshine.

On our way back to Jackson for breakfast at The Bunnery we got a good look at a big bull moose.  What you can’t see in this photo is the crowd of paparazzi with their big cameras and zoom lenses taking the same photos I was.

OREGON COAST September 2017 – Part 4—Manzanita, Cannon Beach, Seaside

The watercolor artist retreat met at Manzanita, Oregon. Manzanita is a beach town located on The Pacific Coast Highway between Seaside and Tillamook.

It has a huge flat beach which has many moods depending on the weather and tides.

At the north end of the long beach is Neahkahnie Mountain. If you wander way up the beach from town you can even see where the ocean has worn a hole through the headland.

Here is my version of the arch. 

The town is a quiet place but with plenty going on in the way of food, arts and recreation.

If you sit on the hill just above the beach to sketch, you’ll find plenty of scenery plus a good measure of people watching.

 The sunsets are well worth waiting for.

Usually September on the Oregon coast is called “second summer” because of the mild sunny weather. But this time the wind was heavy and the seas rough on several days.

So we got opportunities for challenging seascapes.

I made a trip up the coast to visit Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock.

If you know where to look, you can see Tillamook Lighthouse built on a hunk of rock about a mile off shore. It has quite a history since the waves can be tumultuous and the fog heavy. Just building it cost several lives and many others followed trying to maintain the light to warn ships off the rocks. It was decommissioned in 1957.

It was a windy day when I visited Seaside South Beach to see if I could spot the gray whales reported in the water there.

These young Heermann’s gulls were hunkered down and waiting for better weather to go fishing. I didn’t see any whales.

So I went into town and had lunch at Norma’s. Great food.

If you’re in the mood for saltwater taffy, Seaside Candyman has 180 flavors. I picked out anything with chocolate plus some other kinds to share with the family at home.

For more of my watercolor paintings visit my Etsy Shop.  Or click on the Watercolors by Leenie button on the upper left of this blog page.

National Poetry Month Day Twenty

Prompt:  Write a poem in which you incorporate two outlandish lies.  These “lies” can be untruths about you (the poet) or they can be historical or contemporary.  For example:  “The South won the Civil War.”

—But Maybe

The squirrels we see in park and yard

Seem hardly worth remote regard.

Fuzzy, cute and scatterbrained

They keep a canine entertained.

But in the trees they’ve hatched a plot

To vanquish us without a shot.

And so beware the evil squirrels

Because they plan to rule the world.

WHAT WE DID LAST SUMMER

After 1030 posts over eight fun years; I promised myself I’d quit blogging after the April 30 Day Challenge.  First; because we’d be without internet and even decent phone service for our second season in the woods working as volunteers at a summer camp. And second; because publishing stuff on my blog just takes a lot of time. 

Then I discovered a comment from my neighbor, Feral Woman, a few days ago on my last blog post--

“Leenie of the Great Mountains, I challenge you to post up some photos of the last few months, and tell us what you have done!!!”

Okay, FINE. Here is our summer in 27 photos.

We moved our borrowed 26 foot travel trailer to camp in May.  We were soon joined by the other volunteer couples who would spend the whole summer there with us.

 We hoped we had moved in after winter was over.  We were wrong.

 Weather or not, we went to work preparing the camp.  Contractors and volunteers came and went as remodeling and repairs happened everywhere.

 The scenery, such as the Grand Teton Mountains to the east, was amazing.   But we had little time to stop and gaze as we prepared for our first campers.

One project was to drop a dead tree without damaging a nearby cabin or anything else.

 When the dust cleared the tree was down exactly where the guys wanted it; between two fence posts where they had removed the fence.

 The weather was still pretty cold when our first big bunch arrived.  That didn’t dampen their spirit and energy.  They put on their sweatshirts and danced.

 Mosquitos hatched by the billions.  Finally we were provided with a fogger to knock them down.

  

Every week another party of around 250 girls and their leaders arrived to enjoy life in the woods without benefit of electronic gadgets.

 There were much better things to do.

 Cooking and dining al fresco---

 Making quilts and other items to be sent to refugees and disaster victims---

 Doing service projects to help at camp, such as a bucket brigade to stock the woodshed--

 Spending spiritual time around the campfire---

And being very, very silly---

DH and I worked with the other couples there to help make the camping experience memorable.

 We taught beginning archery.

 We took them through some challenging obstacles.

 And we shared the wonders of life in the forest with the heat and the dirt and the critters.

Several times we turned out all the yard lights for a few hours of star gazing. We had a nice dark sky to view the Persied Meteor Shower in August.

 We DID NOT join the hardy groups who arose at dawn to jump in our unheated pool for bragging rights.

We warned them over and over about the very real danger of bears in the woods. There were several bear scares but we never saw any in camp.

 But we knew they were there.  This is one of the tracks I discovered in the mud just up the creek from camp. (that's my walking stick with a bear bell)

 The fun continued.  Here is a group of leaders reminding the girls that running a bra up the flagpole was not okay.

 Our resident frogs and snakes were part of a catch and release program.

 At the end of the week all the campers pitched in to clean the cabins and the restrooms.

 Then they packed up their gear and some of our dirt and bugs and left.

 When the last group disappeared down the road we set to work to winterize the camp.

We put away the benches and tables and emptied the pool.

Then when the temperatures dipped to freezing and aspen leaves turned to gold we hauled out our houses and went home.

You can till check out what I'm up to with my watercolor paintings here: https://www.etsy.com/shop/WatercolorsbyLeenie