Today’s prompt word is “ovate” meaning egg-shaped. That made me think of spring and the various egg associations at this time of year. Might be time to munch some jelly beans.
LESLIE
April 15, 2025 Context for Poem “Spring Whirling”
Reply
Tag Archives: NaPoWriMo Challenge
April 13, 2025 Context for Poem “One of a Kind”
The botanical term that inspired this poem, “monotype,” does not appear in the poem. Exploring its meaning, however, made me think of how we are able to see the uniqueness of those people (and situations and locations and objects, too) that are important to us. It especially takes time and attention to perceive the deep individuality that marks each person. And then, despite a consistent core, he or she keeps growing and changing!
Today’s poem is dedicated to my sister, Karla. Today is her birthday. Her life is a gift to everyone who knows her. Among her many virtues, as some of you long-time readers know, she is an exceptional photographer of the natural world. (To see past posts that feature her photography, you can search on “Karla Schultz WinonaMedia”.) The photographs in this post are all from her. I want to thank her for allowing me to share her artistic gifts with you.
LESLIE
April 12, 2025 Context for Poem “Missing Pages”
In preparation for a summer weekend discussing Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, with a friend, I have been reading about her life. Two excellent biographies, Romantic Outlaws: The Extraordinary Lives of Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley by Charlotte Gordon and Mary Shelley by Muriel Spark, have provided engrossing reads as well as a wealth of personal and cultural background. And yet, and yet…no matter how much can be known by scholarship, there are always overt and inadvertant gaps for a biographer. No matter how much we know, we wonder. It seems to me that speculation — risky as that is in any realm — is part of coming to know, and if there is no margin for that then we either make it up or grow bored.
Still, I suspect–ahem, I speculate–that for most of us knowledge is founded on questioning, and only some questions can be definitively answered. How frustrating! And yet, how wonderful, too, since it is our explorations that give us new points of view and allow new insights in.
Today’s poem has twin inspirations–this recent reading and the realization that not only texts but also plants have in-built essential lacunae.
Here’s to partial answers to some of our questions!
LESLIE
April 11, 2025 Context for Poem “Fairy Boats”
The word, “keel,” comes from the Old Norse word for “ship.” As it was Rosendahl’s only gloss on a term beginning with the letter K, it served as the inspiration for today’s poem.
In botany, a “keel” refers to the fused, boat-shaped structure formed by the two bottom petals in flowers, especially of the Papilionaceous branch of the Fabaceae family–legumes like peas and beans and lupines. One also sees this in some orchids including dendrobium and black orchids, plants which live in Minnesota houses but not in Minnesota gardens.
The descriptions in “Fairy Boats” and some of the images in this post come from photo safari visits to my friend, Judy. She lives outside of Northfield on many acres that manage to contain several habitats: lawns, hedgerows, gardens, prairie, ponds, and dense woodlands. The stand of lupine described in the poem was not planted by her but inadvertently by passing birds. (Visits to Judy’s land has sparked several other poems over the years and more than 1,000 photographs.)
Lupines also flourish along Minnesota’s North Shore, and thrive abundantly in the ditches near the rocky beaches of Lake Superior. The images below come from that region.
Wishing you an imaginative day, wherever you journey! LESLIE
April 10, 2025 Context for Poem “Black Walnuts”
Rosendahl’s glossary does not contain an entry for “J,” but last evening Tim suggested “Juglone.” If you have a black walnut tree, then you know about this chemical secreted by the trees. Gardening centers and extension services provide lists of plants which are most likely to tolerate this onslaught — though not sure that any plant actually enjoys ingesting juglone.
I think that these walnuts–bookending our property to the perennial delight of grey, red, and albino squirrels alike–are beautiful, but they offer us perennial challenges, too. And for humans without access to a hydralic press, it is almost impossible to crack the shells and harvest the nuts. (Hammers and the rear tires of vehicles are ineffective.) I often ponder the strength of squirrel jaws–and am powerfully glad that they are not any larger than they are!
