April 16, 2018 NaPoWriMo Challenge Poem “Weatherwise”

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Leslie Schultz

Weatherwise

Is it bee drone? No.
No mosquito. Just a plow
through new April snow.

Atlanta pollens
coat streets, throats, with golden haze.
Here, ice pellets melt.

Robins, bewildered,
roost high, beaks pointed windward.
Where has the spring flown?

Leslie Schultz

I have nothing more today to say–photographically, at least–about snow, so below are three images from my garden and neighborhood from last April. Enjoy today–dress for where you are!

Leslie

April Crow with Bleeding Heart (2017)

Doorstep with April Scilla (2017)

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April 15, 2018 NaPoWriMo Challenge Poem “A Windsor Chair”

Posted on April 15, 2018 by Leslie Schultz

A Windsor Chair

A symphony can’t be simply sonic—
notes soaring wing-beats/heart-beats drummed into ears.
More like lit windows in dark walls, chronic
as daybreak and nightfall and widows’ tears:

a whole composed of universal fears
and resolutions. Panes of mended glass.
Those repetitions tonic. Soothing as shears
making order by breaking blades of grass.

Simplicity, too, seems wrought. Involute.
Flowing in tight-formed scrolls. Pure Ionic.
Pedestals hold idealized marble fruit
or chiseled heads (blank-eyed and iconic)
designed to be read Platonically astute
yet—unintentionally?—ironic.

Leslie Schultz

Greetings from this Land of April Snow! These photographs were all taken from within my house within the past twenty-four hours. This morning’s poem started as I idly looked at some images of antique Windsor chairs made hundreds of years ago in Philadelphia and took the shape of this Petrarchan sonnet.

Enjoy your day, whatever the weather! LESLIE

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April 14, 2018 NaPoWriMo Challenge Poem: “Patience, Patience”

Posted on April 14, 2018 by Leslie Schultz

Patience, Patience

Like harpers’ hands,
strands of blizzard
keep blowing against
these long, metal tubes.

Wind chimes make
unrepeatable and
persistent music
in the icy cold.

Wind-driven sleet
covers the grass
and glazes the streets
this April morning.

Still, daffodils struggle
upwards, yellow-green;
Siberian scilla
open like rainbows;

and soon (whatever
the weather) bold
forsythia will perch,
gold-finch-like, on cold branches.

Leslie Schultz

Forsythia in Snow (Northfield, MN May 2013)

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April 13, 2018 NaPoWriMo Challenge Poem: “Enchantment” & Photography By Karla Schultz

Posted on April 13, 2018 by Leslie Schultz

Enchantment
for Karla

Remember those pajamas with feet we padded in,
how we sat near the television, clutching
each other in fear when Dorothy’s house
pinned down the first witch and her striped stockings
shriveled? We shivered as the tiny silver
screen shimmered with image after image.

Most magical of all, that sudden wash
of color, of eyes opened at last
to besetting wonder: beauties and dangers.
As I see it, sister, you carry Oz
with you everywhere. Fields of bright poppies
wake you up, and you bring us all to light.

Leslie Schultz

For Karla,

You scatter pixel dust with practiced hand,
transport me to a rare magical land.
The measure of your magic is to show
beauty abounds and seeing makes it grow.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KARLA! MANY HAPPY RETURNS OF THE DAY!

A number of older posts feature Karla’s incomparable photographs, from vistas to insects and everything in between. Just search on “Winona Media Karla Schultz” to find dozens, each one amazing!