Juxtaposition

Sometimes, nature takes an unexpected turn. We saw that many times this year. I decided to take two seasonal images and place them side by side to analyze the changes and write a comparison through poetry for National Poetry Month. Follow my thinking as I honor the whimsical nature of nature during March and April. 

I have seen the Lady April bringing the daffodils, bringing the springing grass and the soft warm April rain. -John Mansfield

surprise storm shock earth

dainty daffodils droop

perky ones pose

©CV, 2021

Photos by Barbara VanIderstine (PA)

& Carol Varsalona (VA)

This year, nature played an April Fool's joke? The photo to the left was taken on April Fool's Day while the one to the right was shot in March.  Winter switched places with spring but the daffodils draped in golden robes stood their ground. 

Then, my heart with pleasure fills and dances with the daffodils.

-William Wordsworth

In 1665, Robert Herrick wrote a poem, To Daffodils.

You can listen to it by clicking on the image.

This week, Tabatha Yeatts is the host of Poetry Friday. She shares her National Poetry Month project of a bilingual poem collection and invites all to join the Annual Summer Poem Swap.

For National Poetry Month, I am writing poetry as many days as I can while I am unpacking boxes and organizing my new home. I hope to unveil Winter's Embrace 2021 Gallery of Artistic Expressions also.

Autumn Writing

I look out my window each day, wondering what new surprise nature will provide. I slowly discover a rhythm, inspired by the tinges of autumn I see. Writing finds its way into morning. I settle in. From consciousness to paper, words appear as I reveal my inner thoughts. What starts as a glimmer of an idea becomes a messy synthesis of flowing words. With faith and a rewrite, voice will rise on wings that fly. 

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While leaf peeping is not a robust activity on Long Island this October, I seek autumnal beauty through the eyes of others. 

My colleague, Sylvia Vardell, captures the beauty of autumn's colors in the following image poem.

Thanks to my friend, Barbara VanIderstine, 

her magnificent photo of upstate New York provided me with inspiration to create a tribute to autumn.

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Today is the National Day On Writing. 

I celebrate the power of the written word through poetry.

Why do you write? 

Share your thoughts on social media with the hashtag #WhyIWrite.

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Share your digital expressions on the beauty of autumn at my upcoming gallery, #AutumnAblaze. The invitation can be accessed here.

I'm off on a leaf-peeping adventure but before I go, I am checking in with others at Poetry Friday. 

Today's Poetry Friday roundup is hosted is my writing friend, Leigh Anne Eck who offered the following for Autumn Ablaze. Her poem was inspired by Terje Akke's photo of autumn in Estonia.

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