Hooray for bouquets

for 52 weeks of nature art

Today's poem is by Izumi Shikibu (c.1000)

I cannot say
which is which:
the glowing
plum blossom is
the spring night's moon.

Moving into spring

"Our lives are full of thresholds: moving through the rise and fall of each day, the rhythm of the week, the seasons, the veil between this world and the other, between the status quo and our own deepening and unfolding journey. Thresholds require that we be vulnerable, that we acknowledge that we simply do not know what is to come, that we surrender to something much bigger and more meaningful, even as it calls us away from familiar patterns and habits that have become much loved.”

--- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Ahh spring

A greenly morning,
Soft, cool rain pattering down
lilacs nodding low.

52 weeks of nature art: tulips

Lucky again

I am a lucky duck, just received a free spot in Louise Gale's Mandala e-course.
I have been taking part in her 52 weeks of Nature Art, last week was hyacinth.

Ode to spring mandala

Inspired by Kathryn Costa's Mandala Guidebook, free-handing

Out of myself You scattered me into Nothingness

Into my life You came like a storm of monsoon
banging down from the eastern sky.
And You scattered me, like the wind disperses
dry grass and the petals of flowers.
Out of myself You scattered me into Nothingness,
Beyond the Nowhere, beyond the Beyond.

~ from DAUGHTER OF FIRE by Irina Tweedie

Celebrating spring

Zing, pow, bright sunshine
lilac blooms bursting open,
tulips popping out.

Cardinal's calling,
branches bending in the breeze,
hum of mowers too.

Mid-April

Ground ivy, tulip,
Violet, dandelion,
garlic mustard too.

Mowing grass today,
shoveling snow tomorrow?
It must be April!

Apricot, almond biscotti,
A bouquet of white roses,
a gorgeous pink, rose necklace,
bento box lunch,
savory herb plants, 
and a golden card,
36 years since our wedding day -
the sparks still fly.

Wind ruffles ivy
like the fur on a cat's back,
as the wren sings out!

April

Bird song floats above
glowing, green, grassy lawns by
rain-slicked, blackened roofs.

April fool

Almost made up for
the noise in the neighborhood -
smell of new mown grass.