The Cloud Appreciation Society is a non-profit devoted to celebrating the beauty and science of clouds. Some years ago, a generous friend (thank you, Ann!) who has known me well for more than 4 decades gifted me with a subscription to the daily “Cloud-a-Day” post. Since then, I have become even more committed to photographing what I would otherwise forget: these information laden wisps of beauty passing overhead, no two every quite the same.
Regular readers might remember three previous posts mentioning this sterling organization.
Context for the Poem “Enlightenment:
This morning, I awoke thinking the elusive term “enlightenment” before the sun was up, and also about the way the sky looked here two days ago, just before the soaking rains arrived delivering an inch or more of ice-cold water, and I was glad to have snapped a few images of the eastern view from my front porch.
Today’s poem was sparked by a New York Times crossword clue. I am a devotee of this word game 365 days a year. I always learn something new. Usually the new snippet of knowledge is something from the worlds of sports or contemporary music or television shows or popular culture in general, areas where I have gaping deficits. (I do just fine with Latin phrases, classical mythology, U.S. presidents long out of office, world geography, Victorian literature, and extinct automobiles like the Edsel.)
Today, I learned that the Statue of Liberty’s internal stairs, the structure allowing humans to climb up for sweeping views of New York City’s harbor and skyline, is actually two intertwining staircases! Yes, 162 steps up and 162 steps down encircling each other, step by step, in the form of a double helix. I have never (yet!) visited Liberty Island but since girlhood I have longed to do so. Soon! Meanwhile, I travel there in my imagination rather often.
(Photo from the Library of Congress Archive, part of the public domain)
I do not think my own sparked poem, “Inside Liberty,” will become a deathless classic, like the sonnet engraved at the base of our shared icon, written by Emma Lazarus:
The New Colossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightening, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Emma Lazarus
(This poem is in the public domain. In 1903, the lines were inscribed onto a bronze plaque and attached at the base of the Statue of Liberty.)
I did, however, enjoy a few hours of thinking about this subject, noticing again the coin on the money clip in my wallet, passed down to me by my father, and thinking about what is of value in the traits and ideas we inherit and pass on. I was especially struck by the intention of welcome designed into the Statue of Liberty–and her eloquent, silent commentary on current events. I hope you enjoy these photos of actual currency, and that your days are spent in richly rewarding ways!
Moon to the South of My House, Easter 2018 (Leslie Schultz0
And we’re off!
Later today (Yes! April Fool’s Day, 2026) the Artemis II NASA mission will blast off and spend the next 10 days exploring, from the confines of an Orion rocketship, the lunar surface. Special attention will be given to the moon’s south pole. The moon has caught human attention and set us dreaming since before we invented words and ways to write them down. This morning, I am pondering the connections between “Art” and “Artemis”, between “Lunar” and just plain “Loony”. (I am a proud transplant to the Loon State.)
My own launch into the April 2026 Poem-a-Day Challenge has begun this morning with the penning of my shiny new quartet of couplets, “Liftoff.” As I know from the past ten Aprils of striving, on some mornings the goal reaching a poem to share seems farther and more far-fetched than traveling to the moon–quite beyond reach. And yet, with persistence, something is brought into focus on the page.
Moon Through My Living Room Window (Leslie Schultz)
As most of you know, I share each April day’s poem via email. (If you would like to receive the poem in your inbox and aren’t, let me know and I will add you to the April Poems list.)
If you would like to read other poems composed in the moment this month, do check out the mother ship, the NaPoWriMo website, where there are links to the personal websites of hundreds of participating poets. If you’d like to try your hand at a poem, the NaPoWriMo site offers daily prompts. And if you are taking up the month-long challenge this year (and plan to publish your poems in real time), then consider registering your website with them.
Another poet, Elizabeth Boquet, is also publishing something each day this April on her own blog. Definitely worth a daily look!
Wishing you joy and clarity on your own journey today, LESLIE
My current project now colonizing the dining room table!
Live and learn!
I have been making quilts since 1983, back when I was a student in a poetry M.F.A. program. That’s when I learned how refreshing it can be to put words aside for a while and dive into color, texture, and form.
Now quilting is a permanent part of my life, and, in a time when retail fabric stores are as rare as hens’ teeth, I feel uncommonly blessed that here in Northfield, within walking distance from my house, is a true treasure: Reproduction Fabrics.
This little gem of a store is located on the second floor of the Merchant Bank Building at the center of town. Brainchild of fabric historian Margo Krager, this store combines her loves of history, fabric, helping, and teaching. Where else can you find every quilting notion you need, bolts and bolts of bequiling fabric, and expert advice for any project? Best of all, you don’t have to travel to Northfield! Margo does a lively business through phone and internet connections.
At Reproduction Fabrics can you find early Colonial calicos, Civil War designs, accurate reproductions of popular prints from the 1920s or the 1950s, and so much more. Margo’s website is an art gallery for the fabric afficianado. My current favorite? That would have to be the bold fabrics inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School geometrics.
If you are contemplating a project, you are in luck, because today Reproduction Fabrics is having a sale to celebrate an annual holiday. It was their email yesterday that alerted me to an national holiday of which I was previously unaware: Today is the 34th celebration of National Quilting Day! Every year, on the third Saturday in March, this holiday, a joint project of the National Quilt Museum and the Quilt Alliance, showcases the history and joy of this textile art form.
So hang a quilt outside today! Hug your favorite quilter! –or simply spend a few moments browsing through the wealth of color, line, and story available on these amazing websites!
This image is one I took in the parking lot of our beloved Just Food Co-op. For me, it sums up perfectly the shift in the seasons between the grey skies of winter and the greening fields of spring. It is always a day I feel like celebrating.
This year of 2026, I am especially happy because Tim and I have just finished the full first draft of our first co-authored novel, one set in 1979 that celebrates a small community with an early food co-op at its center. We planted this literary seed fully six years ago, during the dark days of the Covid pandemic. We don’t know where it will take us from here (but, you know us: discussions for three sequels are well underway!)
Wishing you, too, a joyous and eventful turn of the seasons!
