Poetry Friday–The June Edition

Welcome to Poetry Friday! Is it summer yet? About twenty-five years ago when we lived in Urbana, IL our local NPR had a Friday morning feature with their famed weather man called “Ask Ed.” Folks would phone the station and tell Ed where they were going for the weekend and Ed would predict the weather at their destination…. sounds kind of quaint, huh? And what, you might ask, does that have to do with whether or not it’s summer? The aforementioned Ed liked to talk about the meteorological season, which according to him began March 1st, June 1st, September 1st, and December 1st. So thanks to Ed I can say that although it’s still three weeks until the solstice, it’s meteorological summer–and that’s good enough for me.

After a cold spring the weather suddenly turned hot and summery this week in Michigan, bringing with it some startling changes. Most annoying are the swarms of mosquitoes that just emerged. But there are also some pleasant sights, including a quick ripening and fall of maple seeds. The air filled with helicopters earlier this week as all the maple trees seemed to drop their seeds at once. I tried to take a few shots of the seed storm. I now know that it’s a challenge to capture that sight in a photo. Here are the best of my efforts, along with a short poem inspired by our helicopter storm (with thanks to my younger offspring for spiralizing my words and adding them to a photo.)

© Buffy Silverman
A fuzzy view of the seed storm–click to see them fly.

 

Most of the seeds have landed.

 

Please share your link with Señor Linky. I look forward to reading your blog posts this week!

36 thoughts on “Poetry Friday–The June Edition

  1. Love your spiraly spring strain! We had a blustery moment on the playground the other day and my Kindergarteners were whirling around with the dandelion puffs! Thanks for hosting this week, Buffy!

  2. Love your spiral poem with its swirling words! I understand your challenges in capturing the helicopters in flight. My daughter and I love the leaf falls in our ravine each fall, but have yet to catch a decent picture of the event.

  3. I love your swirly poem, and it is the perfect concrete poem to celebrate the maple seeds. (I want to learn how to make and put concrete poems on a photograph. )

  4. Thanks for hosting today! Yep, here in Indiana we seem to have skipped spring as well–and I am starting to find those helicopter seeds. I’m impressed how well you were able to capture their twirling dance in a photo–and your poem is perfect with it!

  5. Love the twirling poem like the maple seeds. We don’t get that here in the deep south, but we do have mosquitoes. The heat has been unbearable already! Thanks for hosting.

  6. Buffy, you’ve described my world — the cold spring, the sudden onset of heat, the bugs (found some ants in the house yesterday, ugh), and the swirl of helicopters. Love the spiraling poem!

    I’m in this week with an original haiku. Thanks for hosting!

  7. Cool! A seed-storm forecast and then….there it is, in both word and form. Nicely done (and thanks for the tips on how to make such an image.)

    PS. My daughter lived in neighboring Champaign, IL for six years. I’ll have to ask her if Ed was still predicting while she was there.

  8. Dear Buffy, thank you (and your youngest offspring) for this swirly bit of wonder! Thank you also for hosting today. Always a joy to read your words! xo

  9. I love the combination of your image and poem. It brought back such care-free memories of dancing through storms of maple seed “helicopters” with my siblings long, long ago. The swirling effect is perfect and the words are a delight to read aloud. Thanks for hosting this week!

  10. Thanks for hosting! I love your swirly poem that perfectly matches the storm of maple helicopters. I used to gather them by the hands-full and stand in the rain of swirl! (Thanks for that memory!)

  11. If you can, please remove my first linky. I thought I was clicking to comment. Your photo and the spiraling poem is marvelous. I’ll have to hunt for a maple tree to find some helicopters. There are few maple trees in Denver. Thanks for hosting, Buffy. I’ll be back later with a proper link!

  12. First, “spiralize” is definitely my word for the day. Ha! Perfect form for this delightful poem, scattering words and seeds hither and yon. Thanks for hosting this week! :0)
    Happy (Meteorological) Summer! We’ll ring in the solstice in Dublin – Temple Bar district, no less, which Rick Steves tells me is quite the hoppin’ place for the solstice; oh, my!

  13. Buffy, can your offspring give me a lesson on spiraling? It’s a cool effect! I picked up a few “poly-noses” and stuck them on my nose last weekend, but my nearly 2-year-old grandson found them disconcerting. Maybe next year, when he’ll be three…

    1. She coded it in html, and then took a screenshot because I asked her to put it on the image. Beyond me, but maybe you can figure it out! I remember when we used to stick seeds on our noses…

  14. Buffy, while you had a seed storm, we had a belting hailstorm driving from Long Island to Virginia. It was scary and the first storm of this magnitude that it made cars on the highway stop on the shoulder. While I did not write about that this week, I did write about stunningly beautiful spring days that are not plentiful this year. I adore your shape poem with the dancing seeds in the background. Might you offer that for my spring gallery because it is unique? Thank you for hosting.

  15. Thank you for hosting Buffy. Coming, as I do, from the Southern Hemisphere we tend to mark the seasons in the same manner as weatherman Ed- so our months determine the change of season. It is now officially winter in Australia. Loved the presentation of your poem. So fitting. I find it mesmerizing to watch leaves dance, so you are providing me with strong connections. The intersection of the photographic image with your specially chosen words makes for a most engaging read. And my head didnt fall off in the process…

  16. Hi, Buffy. Thanks for hosting this week!

    Your concrete poem is the perfect combination of swirly words and swirly form. I loved seeing the photographs of all those seeds. Nature is so busy in the summer months.

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