Tag Archives: NaPoWriMo Challenge

Considering National Pet Day & Context for Poem “North Star: for Stella ” (April 11, 2026)

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Today is, I learned, National Pet Day.

It is also National Cheese Fondue Day, National 8-Track Tape Day, National Submarine Day, National Living Donor Day, and National Barbershop Quartet Day.

Phew! Who knew?

It turns out that all 365 days of the year have multiple celebratory claims on them, each quirky, possibly historical, and passionately championed by at least one other American. Curious? Take a look at National Day Calendar and look up your birthday or anniversary. Perhaps you’ll find even more reason to celebrate.

But I digress.

To observe National Pet Day, I want to celebrate our own Stella. As a five-year-old rescue, she came to us on March 7, 2022 already with her name. Since then, she has become our own North Star, our beacon of hearth and home. (Above, Stella in my office in 2022. Below, another early image, the one I use as my screen saver.)

Happy National Something-You-Love Day!

Until tomorrow,

LESLIE

Scilla’s-Eye View of the World & Context for Poem “Minnesota Blue” (April 8, 2026)

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Glimpses of blue sky have been few and far between this spring. I have been especially cheered this year by the unrelenting hardiness of the Siberian squill–also known as scilla–that washes over that reliably refreshes the dry winter lawns each April. This year, I am choosing to view this beautiful resurgance as an emblem of grassroots democratic ideals.

Until tomorrow,

LESLIE

April 29, 2025 Context for Poem “Announcement of Imminent Departure”

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Today’s poem, “Announcement of Imminent Departure,” springs from daily life, spins a poem from a recent confluence of conversation and weather, and a recognition of the inevitable fleeting brevity of each moment. Here is a snippet of what I learned this morning, after I was alerted to the meaning of certain configurations of bird flight from my sister, Karla.

“Kettling apparently serves as a form of avian communication—an announcement of imminent departure—as well as a way of gaining altitude and conserving strength.”

As I wrote today’s poem, I was also thinking of how our mutual celebration of National Poetry Month draws to a close tomorrow, making way for something new.

Wishing you good weather and good cheer–LESLIE

Looking East After Rain

April 28, 2025 Context for Poem “Fashioning” & Some Highlights from “Art in Bloom” at the Minneapolis Institute of Art

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The influence on today’s poem that I knew at once was my visit yesterday with Tim and my sister, Karla, to the Minneapolis Institute of Art to see the annual extravaganza that is Art in Bloom. Previous posts have featured past years’ intersections between the art in the museum’s permanent collections and the creativity of the area’s floral artists.

The influence I only realized as I was preparing this post was my love of a poem by William Butler Yeats called “A Coat.” If you don’t know it, or if you want to reread it now, it is available on the Poetry Foundation website HERE.

Now I am intrigued by “Miss Lily Place.” “Prodigious shopper in the Suq”! Really, one cannot make these things–even these names–up!

People watching is as much fun–maybe more fun–than seeing the permanent art and the ephemeral floral creations inspired by it. My favorite image is the penultimate one!

Why not flaunt your style today!

April 27, 2025 Context for Poem “Noli Me Tangere”

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Today’s poem is a straight-forward seasonal inspiration from the garden. I always cheer to see these tiny, luminous spring ephemerals. Sometimes the timing of their blooming has coincided with Memorial Day and I have included them in bouquets I have made to place on the graves of Corrine and Elvin Heiberg in nearby Oak Lawn Cemetary. Now, researching them for this morning’s poem, I am aware not only of the power of their beauty but of their powerful poisons–not sure I will pick them again. If I do, it will be with caution and even more reverence.

Wishing you a day of discoveries without dangers!