Seasonal Shifts
Seasonal Shifts
10 January
Acute cold has laminated the lake
with a thick veneer of ice
covered by a carpet of snow.
We stepped off the end of the road
onto the sturdy water
and marched away from shore
in the direction of the eagles’ nest
leaving a clutter of boot tracks, paw prints
and snow angels in our wake.
The day was blue and white, sky and snow.
12 April
The hickory trees perform their spring extravaganza
... a charade of shell pink and pale yellow buds
promise elaborate blossoms
then curl back like colorful silken folds
of a conjuror’s scarf to reveal the magic trick
... bouquets of green leaves.
8 May
In the midst of planting annuals, I find myself ripping out dandelions to prepare the beds. I am already too late to prevent the seeding of the next generation. Their evolutionary adaptations serve them well. Leaves, buds and cheery yellow flowers hug the ground, avoiding blades of mowers and spades [although the horses seek them out and use their prehensile lips to lift the greens and blossoms high enough to munch]. When they are ready to propagate, the radial petals reorganize into spheres of seed propellers and the stems shoot up several inches above ground where they wait for the brush of a breeze ... or a foot, paw or hoof ... to create lift off. I must admit that their appearance each spring lights a smile in my spirit and furnishes an excuse to plow my fingers into the warming earth.
Dandelions in the rocks 48 x 32
20 January 2010
Five days folded in a cloak of freezing fog
have turned the porch screens opaque white,
blanket stitched leaf edges with crystal thread,
and trimmed the horses with a fringe of frost.
11 June
Woods and fields
are a cacophony of June green
blazoned with a cadence of wildflowers.
Following deer and horse trails
and focusing on the notes of color
I discover that I am not alone.
Hum, buzz, drone and flutter
score the movement of fellow collectors.
7 July
The dragonfly ... a living fossil
... a darning needle clad in metallic armor
and levitated on a quartet of crystal wings
... a fast, efficient flyer and a ferocious hunter
with 360 degree vision and 80 percent of its intellect
devoted to analysis of what it sees
... a sparkling dart shot through 300 million years
to glisten among the grasses at the pond’s edge.
16 October
The earliest sign was a subtle alteration
of the value range in the woods
from summer green monochrome
to the diversity of autumn
Then the color wheel spun wildly
with the waning days
from green red bud and yellow-green walnut
to yellow cottonwood through yellow-orange hickory
and orange locust to red-orange wild cherry
and red sumac to red-violet rough leaf dogwood.
30 December
On a bluff above the lake
grows a nursery of young white oaks.
I found them on an autumn afternoon
when the crooked tangle of their trunks
was highlighted by angled rays of sun.
They reminded me then of siblings
wrestling at their elders’ feet.
This morning I tramped through the drifts
in search of them again,
wishing to see the harmony of their angles
accented by the contrast of blowing snow.
Do the elders wonder
whether these unruly youngsters
will ever stand stately and straight?
2016 © Chris Wolf Edmonds . All rights reserved
Eagles’ Nest 48 x 32
Frost-edged leaves 48 x 32
O Dandelion pinwheel 32 x 32
Hickory buds 23 x 32
Wildflowers 23 x 32
Autumn color 48 x 32
O Dragon flies 48 x 32
O Young white oaks 32 x 32