Cascading Kelp: NPM26 #15

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Playing with form when writing poetry is always interesting. Today’s Verselove prompt introduced a poetic form called a cascade. (Check out the Verselove post for more details.)

I love the native giant kelp (macrocystis pyrifera) that grows in our coastal waters. It’s know for its fast growth–up to a foot a day–in ideal conditions. Unfortunately, conditions are not so ideal these days. As our water temperatures rise, kelp struggles. And like a forest on the land, a kelp forest supports an entire ecosystem. Some piles on the beach are normal, but too many piles ignites worry about this special place. I’ve been teaching my young students about this unique algae for years…and have fallen in love with its special qualities. Maybe I’ve illustrated some of them in this cascade of a poem.

It lands on the shore in a heap

Golden fronds etched with waves

Once an undersea forest filled with life

Bubbles bob and float catching rays 

Enormous algae growing at top speed until…

It lands on the shore in a heap

Tiny brittle stars call holdfast home 

With snails and urchins among

Golden fronds etched with waves

Delicate ecosystem depending

On cool Pacific waters

An undersea forest filled with life

We must protect this watery treasure trove

@kd0602

Kindness: NPM26 #14

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On my neighborhood walk after school today I came across a message that made me pause. I took out my phone for a photograph. And it’s still on my mind.

First of all, this was not there yesterday. I walked this same path yesterday, could I have missed it? (I walk this same path frequently and have never come across it before!) I love that it is written neatly–maybe in a paint pen? REBELLION is in all caps and triple underlined. The yellow is perfect, bright enough but not obnoxious. Near the community mailboxes, but not too close.

What does it mean for kindness to be an act of rebellion? I’m struck by the contrast with the way our current government acts. The contrast between kindness and war, kindness and threats, kindness and taking children from their families, kindness and lying. I’d love to believe that kindness could cure so many of our societal ills. At least, it might be a starting point. My colleague reminded me today (before I saw this message on the sidewalk) that she tells her kindergarten students, “Be kind or be quiet.” It is kind to stand up for what is right. It’s not kind to call names and diminish your classmates. (There is a bigger message there when it comes to grown ups.)

So, what about a poem for today? Verselove invited a haiku (17 syllables) about taxes. I think instead I will try my 17 syllables about a kindness rebellion.

When words have power

use them with pure intentions

paint the world with kindness

Anemone Haibun: NPM26 #13

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Deceptively benign to view, sea flowers blossom in the harsh environment of the tide pool. These beautiful flowers are actually sea anemones, described as “predatory marine invertebrates,” animals designed to paralyze their prey with their venomous tentacles. These carnivorous chameleons sometimes cover themselves in shells—looking like sprinkle-covered donuts rather than fierce, long living sea life. I love to photograph them, noticing the ways their colors change with the light and water, and reveling in their resilience. 

Disguised as flowers

Beckoning prey with a wave

Anemone strikes 

Loving Today: NPM26 #12

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Things I Love Today

Raindrops kissing my cheeks as I walked the beach this afternoon. Life-giving water from the sky, promised yesterday, arrived today. Will we get enough to be more than a light caress?

Immersion in a novel…making it hard to set aside to take up today’s must dos. I keep picking it up, puzzling through the story, and reminiscing about time in warm water, watching sea turtles swim, and the sweet and sour taste of lilikoi from my Hawaii experiences. (Pick up Bones of Hilo by Eric Redman if you want to know more)

Sister time. Four miles side by side, words spilling about all the things and nothing at all. Wind and water, conversation and contemplation, fitness and fun. With a bit of shopping thrown in as the cherry on top. 

Lots to Worry About: NPM26 #11

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After I posted Cormorant Convention yesterday, a friend and environmentalist reached out to let me know about the seabird starvation event that is happening in coastal California. Cormorants, pelicans, and murres are being affected–not able to find sufficient fish to keep them healthy. The Verselove prompt this morning was about love (or other abstract concepts or emotions) and worry started weaving itself into my writing brain. (I encourage you to check out the mentor text–both the original inspiration and the one written by Kate.)

I worry about birds

the kind of worry that sprouts wings

and flies close to my heart.

Worry doesn’t limit itself though

it grows round

and orbits the sun.

Can I actually enjoy summer weather

when it comes in February

without the dread of what will come next?

Worry snakes itself around my lungs

keeping my breath shallow.

Am I doing enough for the planet?

Does re-using, re-cycling, re-ducing, composting, picking up trash

on my precious beach

make a difference?

Does it really matter?

When I am delighting in the golden glow

of giant kelp

or the colorful quirkiness

of a nudibranch

am I not worrying enough?

I swat at worry

a gnat, a fly, a mosquito bluzzing

determined to make me itch.

Worry is exhausting.

Let me rinse my feet in the cool briny sea

letting hope and possibility

drip into my pores

urging me forward.

I still worry about the birds.

@kd0602

Cormorant Convention: NPM #10

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I had planned to write about a place I love, the beach, in line with the Verselove prompt. But then during my end-of-the-work-week beach walk this afternoon I noticed a cormorant standing on the beach. Cormorants aren’t really common beach birds and are not regular visitors to our local beach. So seeing them always send a shiver of concern up my spine. I worry that they are sick when I see them on the beach. Of course I took a few pictures and then continued my walk. Then, looking out at the waves (good sized today) I noticed the tons of birds in the water…I thought they would be pelicans. That would be usual. But no, they were cormorants! They bounced with the waves. Some flew by and others were making their way out of the surf and parading toward the beach. It was obviously a cormorant convention! What brought them? I have no idea. Maybe a delicious delicacy in the waters? Or maybe simply a need to commune on the beach or the hope of catching a glimpse of the Artemis II spacecraft on its way to splashdown?

Cormorant Convention

They ride the waves

like pepper sprinkled on avocado

bobbing in the salty sea

They’ve arrived for the convention

making their way to the shore

waddling, bird by bird

to join the others

gathered

maybe to witness history

the splashdown of Artemis II

into the nearby sea

@kd0602

Alliterative Play: NPM26 #7

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A playful prompt from Verselove: pick a photo and begin and end with alliteration. When our garden teacher brought this delightfully huge lacy looking cauliflower into the lounge, I had to snap a photo. And the poem is some fun word play.

Wild white wonderful

cauliflower vegetably 

meandering through the school garden

growing to enormous proportions 

wandering wistful wondering

Am I a veggie kids will embrace?