I am a hopeless romantic who believes that dreams come true. Recently, for me that has been wonderfully true and painfully false all at the same time. I think that’s life. How can someone capture that feeling in a photograph? Molly Hogan does. The photo for today she took on her way to work. The caption on Facebook simply said, “What almost made me late for work twice this week.” The reality is that we work every day, and sometimes those days are hard and don’t go the way we planned. We do it anyway, every day. But sometimes there is beauty that stops us in our tracks, makes us pull the car over and wonder at the miracle of two things, flowering branch and rising sun, can come together in a composition of Awe.
Put on your awe-glasses today. Find the flower in the rainstorm. Be aware that life will not always be so hard. Breathe. Join me in musing over this amazing photo and write for a few minutes. It will be good for your soul.
Summer Comes
I have a long list
Margaret Simon, flash draft
of things to do.
You know the one
we write each May
and tick away day by day
until you wake up on a morning
in June and find peace
on a branch with blue blossoms
welcoming you awake.
Reflections on the Teche 
How true this is, and how apt your post and poem is for me: having returned this week from NYC and a long, long visit as we met and watched our brand-new first granddaughter thrive and grow, budding leaves and friends help the transition away from daily presence of our loved ones in NY…and today, enroute back to the farm where I help with rescue horses, nature’s wonders and the cycle of the earth’s seasons in the country will get me to pull over, take photos, and scribble notes for poems.
Corn sprouts
like a child
who shoots up overnight
arms waving
body swaying
in the sunshine
in the wind
delight unbound.
Draft, Carol Coven Grannick
Forgive me for departing from writing about the beautiful photo you shared! My brain went to the sights I was anticipating this morning….
Congratulations on your grandchild, Carol. she will inspire many a poem, like the lovely one you shared.
Thank you, Rose!
You always have permission to stray from the photo and write what’s in your heart. I love this small poem and you should tuck it into a book for your grandbaby.
Thank you, Margaret. I will put it in her April 2023 book—I wrote a poem for her “each” day during National but I have several pages begging for something different!
Welcome to the new granddaughter! I enjoy your apt simile of growing corn and growing child, Carol.
Thank you, Jane!
Carol, oh for me “delight unbound” captures that joyous time of newness and awareness plus special love reserved just for grandparents. Those infants are astute. They KNOW who their bffs are!!!! And it feels so good. Your poem is precious like they are.
Thank you, Janet!
Dangling Orb
Janet Clare F. Draft
Go ahead.
Write about sunrise
about the fire-burning soul
about the golden red light
charging, recharging all.
See? It hangs on, full stop
reaches, encircles, gives birth
to us, to flora, to fauna, to earth.
Write an ode, a sonnet, a dance
for gifts of photos and bliss
painting endlessly a welcome kiss
this lifegiving peach of skypearl.
A first. Composed on phone in car waiting to head to bus to go to PGA golf in 39 degree, freezing weather!!!!!!
Wow! “painting endlessly a welcome kiss” is so lovely. Have fun at the golf tournament!
Janet, when you say, “See?” I do see! I especially like your last line.
This is simply wonderful, Janet—I love the command with which you begin…address perhaps to self and to all of us…and “this lifegiving peach of sky pearl”—beautiful!
Thanks for all the treasures here in your words Margaret and Molly’s image. Hope to return later for comments…
Beauty’s Ponder
morning sunbeam
merges branch
brightens spirit
and stirs hope
from fallen despair…
Michelle Kogan, draft
Well chosen verbs say so much, Michelle.
I like your alliterative word choices, Michelle, and the message of hope.
Ah, Michelle, to ponder and brighten, making hope so clear. I love how images of the sun brighten our lives in so many ways.
Lovely imagery, Michelle—
Your poem is so calming, Margaret. Thanks, Molly, for the photo. Those look like dogwood blossoms to me, and I’ve been in awe of the blooms on mine this year. I brought branches in to decorate.
Mary Oliver Had It Right
There is glory in a golden sun
peeking through bountiful blossoms
when we take time to
pay attention
be astonished
“be astonished” Yes and “take time,” thanks for your golden words “peeking through” Rose!
Yes! And now, Mary Oliver and Rose Cappelli have it right!
Ah, I agree with my friend, Jane!! Mary Oliver urges over and over to learn and love and notice with our eyes, hearts, minds, ears, souls, to rise to a level where we are astonished over and over. How good to strive to know her words so well.
Yes. Beautifully said.
Molly’s photo is glorious. One of her best, for sure. And the way you wrote about it…swoon! I took your invitation and put on my awe-glasses. But I found a smell!
open window
the scent of iris
lures me to the garden
Oh, Mary Lee, how evocative!
My mother loved irises. I have none. You make me want to go out and plant immediately. I have much to do to put love into the ground and into our lives.
Love irises!
Mary Lee, this beautiful image reminds me of how powerful scent is…and how frequently a scent of one flower or another will turn my head and stop me on a walk.
I love your message, Margaret, to pay attention to the wonders around us and the sounds of “tick away day by day” and “branch with blue blossoms.”
Sun
plays blossom peek-a-boo,
rises, shouts,
“I see you!”
Jane Heitman Healy, draft
Oh that lovely young at heart sun playing peek-a-boo. So much is alive because of our sun. And we can shout our thanks. I love to have cloudy days though because when the sun shines, I can get extra excited!!!
Ah, Margaret. The busy life of grandparents! Teacher, writer, blogger, poet, mom…….and June, with buds and sun and time to bask in glory. I loved your poem!
Loving all of these!!! The photo and every word! Too crazy a week here, so I will just add these notes: love the corn sprout image, reminds me that the leaves whisper and the stalks squeak as they grow, so like the child’s waving arms and coos. Also, I just gave an iris to a friend and we compared our ideas of its scent: grapes, root beer… read further of iris smelling of apricot, cream soda, orange peel, gingersnap, nutmeg… a wondrous world… and then the sun hangs there like an egg yolk!
The blossoms gathered
In awe of the day’s breaking
And breezes waking
A gathering of blossoms. A lovely thought as we await spring just before summer gets to our area. We have had some nice flowering, a patch of 80 degree days about a month or so ago, but spring is so short. I have not bought my plants yet. Always after Memorial Day…..we even get snow in May sometimes!!! Like the middle of May but it does not last long at least. I want to be in awe of the day ahead and enjoy those early breezes!!!
[…] I’d been thinking about it, then on Wednesday, Margaret posted a lovely photo by Molly Hogan on This Photo Wants to Be a Poem. I’m not sure if the tree in Molly’s photo is a dogwood, but it reminded me of mine. That […]