More Orbs

Something so simple

transforms

into 

something so elegant

if you swirl it about

in your mind

and offer it up

as a gift

xx

Orbs

The top photo of blooming Amaryllis

morphs into an orb

(playing with Photoshop, which I blame on Lori Skoog)

and

the sunset morphs into an orb

and leashes, too.

Now I'm really going to get to work.

Really.

You?  

xx

Beauty and the Ice

(click to enlarge)

Like seeds of ideas

held in reserve

to be released

one day

. . .

So much graceful

iced beauty

here

. . .

xx

The Red Barn

So much depends

upon

an old red

barn

wearing green

wreaths

beside the white

tree

xx

(With a nod and apologies to William Carlos Williams)

(click to enlarge)

Ice and Snow

So: 

we've had snow and ice

and ice and snow

and rain and sleet

and sleet and rain

and snow and ice

and so it goes

You can hardly breathe

it is so beautiful:

(*Click to enlarge. Stick your face right in there. xx)

Stones

Stones on my desk

When I am thinking

I'll pick one up

and roll it around

in my hand

they're cool and smooth

and reassuring

they're simple

and astonishing

and I love them

xx

The Boy on the Porch: Fiction Enters 'Real Life'

When I wrote The Boy on the Porch, I was still living in western New York, with no plans to move, but by the time the book was finished, my husband and I were moving to Maine, following other family members, including two beloved grandchildren.

In The Boy on the Porch, a boy rides a cow. I do not know where that came from. However, several months after moving to Maine, my granddaughter joined 4-H and fell in love with cows.  She liked to sit or lie on their backs after feeding and grooming them:

Mind you, I don't think she had ever mentioned cows before this, nor had I ever heard of a child riding a cow before I wrote The Boy on the Porch.

*

In The Boy on the Porch, a boy is found asleep on a porch.  A week after we moved to Maine, I went out onto our porch and discovered a young boy curled up in a chair:

Okay, this one is not so strange, as I knew the boy, my grandson, but I had a moment's flash of that phrase "the boy on the porch" that initiated the whole book.

*

This is the story of the mystery of a child ('mystery' in several senses), and it is the story of the ways in which children and adults shape each other. 

My own children and grandchildren and all my students were mysteries (in many senses) to me, and I'm fairly certain we have shaped each other along the way.

Mm?

xx