I
enter time on this page.
What
kind of time? Steven Hawkings’ or Walt Whitman’s? The goose’s or the loon’s?
Are we counting the nanoseconds of the autumnal equinox or an average human
lifespan? Is this the tempus of fugit fame?
Maybe. We’re all exclaiming, Where did summer go?! To which I add: !!!!!
***
Brockport Etude by
Waning Gibbous Moon
Crickets,
katydids
the
maracas of August
leopard
frogs on vibes
a
little live night music
from
wild old fairy’s woodland
***
So,
readers, I’ve been in absentia to so many of you. If you’re a Facebook Friend
you know this was the summer of Taos (two weeks), an emergency adventure at
Christus St. Vincent’s Hospital in Santa Fe (one week), a Canadian getaway (one
week; theatre + cottage), physical therapy (12 weeks and counting— great
results for Roger)…and so on. And, if
you’re on my listserv, you know I had a book come out in May, Bunchberries, More Canada Poems (see
below). Poetry readings, walks, dinners with friends, topped off by our
housewarming party (46 wonderful guests) on September 13. The only timely news is that our house
renovations are complete for the season (gutters winter-ready). And: we migrate to Florida, departing October
19, arriving at the condo on Halloween/Samhain after several visits with dear
friends along the way.
***
Brockport Autumnal
Nocturne
Now
I speak to you
of
leopard frog’s skritch-skritch-skritch,
one
last long samba
before
mud time as cold fronts
whisk
south out of Canada.
for Catherine Underhill Fitzpatrick
***
It’s
been a nippy one today. Coat weather, furnace running. We’re wusses.
Today? Is it today already? No, actually, it’s
night, a windy night without frogs, and I obtain the answer to my opening questions:
it’s been poet’s time all along.
For further
reading:
·
My thanks, deepest thanks, once again to Michael
Czarnecki at FootHills Publishing for publishing the sequel to Godwit: Poems of
Canada: Bunchberries, More Canada Poems.
Signed copies are $18 (postage paid) or you can order direct from FootHills at http://foothillspublishing.com/2015/id94.htm
.
·
Keep your eyes on http://theplumtreetavern.blogspot.com/ . This is a
fabulous new online poetry journal. I think you’ll enjoy hanging out at the
Tavern. My thanks again to editor Russell
Streuer who will be publishing two more of my shorter poems this month. You can
go directly to one of the earlier poems at http://theplumtreetavern.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2015-08-16T03:28:00-07:00&max-results=12&start=12&by-date=false
.
·
Perhaps
the most unusual publication event (and it was an event!) was when Big Bridge editor
Michael Rothenberg published a review of my Lithic Scatter and Other Poems in
the latest edition. What was unusual is
that my beloved – deceased – friend Beau Cutts wrote it, the last thing he
wrote, and now, posthumously, it’s been published. See: http://bigbridge.org/BB18/reviews/Beau_Cutts.html# .
·
I
also would like to gassho for editor Carl Sharpe who put me in the spotlight in
his VerseWrights journal. http://www.versewrights.com/karla-linn-merrifield.html .
·
I
invite you to visit two web sites: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/422008414/airie-wild-billboards/posts/1347894 + and http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2015/9/24/rewilding-miami-kickstarter/
. I
am exceedingly proud to have my photograph of the Everglades River of Grass
help the citizens and tourists of Miami understand the rare, magnificent world
of the Glades, which is just down the road a piece. The work I did there as Artist-in-Residence
continues to do good work. That the
photo will be enlarged to 48: and wrapped around a building in downtown Miami
knocks my socks off.
The first photo is of a Canadian tree frog I encountered while visiting friends Judy and Fergy Ferguson at their cottage in the Kawarthas, Ontario, in August. My second photograph is of the Charles E. Burchfield painting "Haunted Twilight," which was hanging at an exhibit at the Burchfield Penney Center in Buffalo. (I've been in love with Burchfield's work since I was sweet 16. Well, maybe not sweet.)
