Tag Archives: spring

The Grass is Green

I’m thinking of grass and blade,
generic and particular, and how
we are mostly color-blind to green.
Slope, soil, weeds have made
my lawn a lawn unto itself—now
dull, now bright, now in-between.
There are nuances underfoot
that ants and worms have seen.
I wish they could teach me how
to separate the blades, to put
aside green.

NaPoWriMo22 Day 16 — Even though I posted another poem earlier today, I couldn’t resist trying my hand at a curtal sonnet (napowrimo.net prompt for today) and combining it with the WordPress WordPrompt for this month, which is green. The WordPrompt also inspired the poem below.

After winter
spring is a re-leaf.

Pageant Tree

In springtime when your buds first show,
Delightfully I watch them grow,
So fresh and new after winter’s gray
I want to laugh and sing and play.


Yes, in springtime I am young and gay.

In summer when your boughs are full,
Your beauty’s irresistible.
I gaze upon your crown of green,
The loveliest I’ve ever seen.


Yes, in summer I am like a queen.

In autumn when your branches gold,
What stunning pageantry I behold
As the leaves that cluster at your breast
Scatter like jewels east and west.


Yes, in autumn I am richly dressed.

In winter when your limbs are bare,
With childlike wonder I stop and stare,
Entranced by your graceful whitened frame,
No two branches ever the same.


Yes, in winter I am quite the dame.

Years ago, after reading Myra Cohn Livingston’s book Poem-Making: Ways to Begin Writing Poetry, in which she describes five different types of poems, I wrote one of each kind using a tree-theme. I’ve previously posted “Truncated” (dramatic apostrophe) and “Possibility” (lyrical). “Pageant Tree” is a dramatic conversation. I’ll post the remaining two in the next two weeks. Peace to your ♥!

“Debutante”

Welcome to April and National Poetry Writing Month! I’m once again using prompts from the NaPoWriMo.net website. A big thank you to Maureen Thorson for this wonderful resource.

Maureen posts an early-bird prompt each year. This year’s prompt is, fittingly, to write a poem about your favorite bird. Rather than write a new poem, I’m posting one I wrote years ago. I had wanted to post “Debutante” anyway for the start of April–it’s a bit of serendipity that the poem fits with the prompt.

Debutante

Robin heralds spread the news
As April makes her spring debut,
A budding month, an ingénue.

She blossoms with each passing day,
Strews petals from her beaus’ bouquets
And waltzes past them into May.

© Stephanie Malley

I plan to post my newly-written NaPoWriMo poems daily, though it’s entirely possible you may end up with two in one day. In any case, I hope you enjoy them. Peace to your ♥!