Atmospheric Questions

(Mt. Fagan Sky July 26, 2008 Acrylic on Canvas by kathiesbirds)

Can I ever grasp this great expanse

this wide vault,

this atmosphere?

I reach to hold it to my breast,

I fling my arms towards emptiness.

Why do I want to gather it,

this wide expanse of openness?

~Kathiesbirds (July 25, 2008)

Click on the button to view more Skywatch Friday photos.

Click on Sycamore Canyon to see my other Skywatch Friday post.

Winter Wind: Epilogue

Winter Wind blew
through each little crack,
through empty pockets.
Winter Wind blew snow
across the freshly plowed driveway
bringing harsh reality home.
winter wind blew us a-w-a-y- - - - - - -

~kathiesbirds (1997)

Epilogue: With Gus and I both attending college along with our oldest child and three more at home we were not able to buy the Yellow House. We moved out 2 days before Christmas into a rental home where we lived for the next 2 ½ years while we finished school. Money was tight and winter temperatures fell to -35F with wind-chills of -50F, but we survived and graduated from college and moved away from the frozen north. The Yellow House still stands on Rt. 1 in Westfield, though it is no longer yellow and part of the old barn has fallen down. I’m glad I lived there when I did. I hope you enjoyed my memories in art and poetry. There is more to this story and maybe someday I will tell it.

To view all the posts about the Yellow House click on the Yellow House label below or in the sidebar.

Apple Tree

Autumn swells
your branches full,
red blush jewels
on a green tapestry.
Little monkeys we
cling to branches plucking
sweetness for the winter.

~kathiesbirds (1997)

To view previous posts in this Series click on the links below:

Yellow House Post 1

Yellow House post 2

Yellow House post 3

Yellow House Post 4

Woodstove

Snuggling round the hearth,
heaps of blankets, books and kids,
Dog and kitty join us
in a circle of warmth
only a woodstove gives.

~kathiesbirds (copyright 1997)

To view previous posts in this series click on the links below:

Yellow House post 1

Yellow House post 2

Yellow House post 3

Pine Cone People

Pine cone people beneath the tree,
Pine cone faces smile up at me,
In this lonely meadow
standing up so tall
beneath your sagging branches
the pine cone people fall.

~Kathiesbirds (July 25, 2008)

Prompt 22: Faces

This is the third in a series of posts about the Yellow House.

Yellow House page 1

Yellow House page 2.

Stars Again

Stars again! Stars again!
I can see stars again!
No city lights—
just nature’s twinkle,
winkle, crinkle,
sparkling, darkling light!
at night!
Stars!

~kathiesbirds (1997)

Note: This is the second post in a series about the Yellow House in Westfield, Maine.

Skywatch Friday: The Yellow House

Introduction: Today's post if from a book I made about a short 4 month period that we lived in a little yellow house in Westfield, Maine. We had moved there in 1996 after Gus took a buyout from his company to attend college at the University of Maine in Presque Isle. While we hoped to buy the house and live there forever it was not to be, but the short time we lived there is full of rich memories. This is the first in a series of posts about life in the Yellow House. (All words and images are copyrighted by kathiesbirds 2008)

Dotted Swiss Memories

Sunsets in a kitchen window
washing supper remnants away
while children leap
through rose and gold light
dotted Swiss memories.

~kathiesbirds (copyright 1997)

Click on the button to view other Skywatch photos.

Go to Sycamore Canyon to see my other Skywatch entry.

Mythology 2000: OSI Prompt 20 Myth

Mythology 2000
Tinkerbell
had a dizzy spell
and fell,

While Peter Pan
in Neverland
was too busy
to notice.

And who believes
in Fairytales

these days.
They’ve mapped
the human genetic code

you say?
The mysteries are gone,

We’ve become gods,
until we realize
we can’t shut
Pandora’s Box.

~Kathiesbirds (autumn, 2000)

Skywatch Friday: King Mt. Summer's Blush

(King Mountain Summer in Idaho 1999 acrylic on Canvas by Kathiesbirds)

The setting summer sun
caresses the gentle slopes
of the Lost River Range
King Mountain blushes
behind fragrant stacks of gold--
summer bales of winter sustenance

~Kathiesbirds (July 3, 2008)

Skywatch Friday is hosted by Wiggers World

Click on the link to see a monsoon sky in Sycamore Canyon

Climbing Aster

The dawn rose
-an aster
with lavender sunrays
surrounding her
golden face.

~Kathiesbirds (July 2, 2008)

This poem was inspired by a photo of a Climbing Astor seen at Virtua Gallery by photographer Klaus Web.

The Old Barn

(New England Barn in my Memory; graphite on paper scketch 1997 by Kathie)

Through the doorway
of the old red barn
a memory lingers
in the fragrant bales
stacked to the ceiling,
while below in their
stanchions
the pungent odor of
milk and manure
rises from
black and white
cud-chewing contentment
on the hoof.

~Kathiesbirds (June 30, 2008)