My one little word for 2024 is Peace, so when Paula Bourque posted a selection of photos with the comment “peaceful morning walk”, I asked permission to use one as a prompt. I think many of us are seeking peace at this time of the year. After the frantic slide to the end of the school year, I know that I am. I usually start dreaming of vacations, the beach, and late evenings of relaxation. Summer is a field of possibility.
Welcome Summer
You
shine on
through morning
my waking dreams
sunflower faces
open to a new day
sharing your inspiring light
glowing fields of tall prairie grass
welcoming peaceful dawn of summerToday I practiced a nonet draft. Please add your own small poems in the comments. Encourage other responders with encouraging words. Thanks for stopping by.
Reflections on the Teche 
Margaret, your beautiful nonet resonates with my endless love of the prairie and open land, and with a recent quickie poem I posted on Facebook with a photo from the gorgeous new state park in Kingston, NY —Sojourner Truth State Park, where we went with son, daughter in law, and 14 month old granddaughter last week:
I want the rest of life
to be prairie grass leaning
left in the breeze
open skies against fertile
earth, children grown well,
babies growing with delight
and love in discovery and mastery
and grandparents’ ages
frozen for all time.
Draft, Carol Coven Grannick
Carol, I am currently with my 17 month old granddaughter and it is bliss. I love the first line “I want the rest of life to be prairie grass.”
Ha–the wish for age to be frozen is one I identify with! Love the image of leaning prairie grass, babies growing with delight.
Carol, I love your poem. Your first two lines “I want the rest of my life/ to be prairie grass leaning” immediately grabbed me. I also love “babies growing with light.” I love your idea of grandparents’ age/ frozen for all time.”
Love the way you address summer in your nonet, Margaret. I tried one too–this form is more challenging than it looks!sunsparklesin dew dropsspotlights seedheadsdances with shadowstangoes through cloud covershrinks puddles and sorrowradiates turtles and toddlersgives us energy, weather, and warmth
Hmmm… losing the formatting again! One more try:
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Hmmm… losing the formatting again! One more try:
sun
sparkles
in dew drops
spotlights seedheads
dances with shadows
tangoes through cloud cover
shrinks puddles and sorrow
radiates turtles and toddlers
gives us energy, weather, and warmth
Wonderful verbs full of imagery!
Ooh! Love this, Buffy! “Radiates turtles and toddlers…” Whee!
Hi Buffy, I will come back later to respond you your beautiful poem.
Oh my, Buffy I love the picture you painted with all those /s/ words! I also love all your verb choices and starting your lines with the verbs especially, dances with shadows, tangoes through cloud cover, shrinks puddles and sorrow, and radiates turtles and toddlers. Great poem.
Margaret, I love your beautiful nonet. I see your vision. I am especially drawn to sunflower faces/ open to a new day and the next three lines. “Glowing fields of tall prairie grass” is such a great image. Thank you for the inspiring photo prompt. I don’t know what it was about the photo and your mentioning of a field that brought me back to picking wild strawberries in a field with a pond where farmer grazed his Holstiens. In winter sister and I shoveled the snow off the pond to ice skate. I wrote the poem with three stanzas and three lines.
sun rising above peaks
picking wild strawberries
dodging cow puddles
butterscotch sun
swimming, splashing, laughing in the pond
red-winged blackbirds trill
sun pinking the sky
fishing for sunfish with Grandpa
croaking bull frogs
Gail Aldous, draft
Oh, Gail – I’m right there in your wonderful scene!
Carol, I am happy that you are right there with me! Thank you.
I edited to make the three stanzas more visible. What a wonderful, nostalgic scene. I love “butterscotch sun”.
Margaret, thank you for making it three stanzas. I’m happy the poem came across as a nostalgic scene to you!
A few years ago, I went to a Highlights workshop with Georgia Heard and Rebecca Kai Dotlich. They told us instead of using the same colors over and over again, look up colors online or get color paint samples and maybe use those colors instead. I thought that was such a great idea! (Of course, they had many great ideas. It was an amazing experience! For years I wanted to go to a Highlights workshop and Janet F highly recommended to take their workshop. Janet was correct! I wish I had enough money to go back for more workshops. I have taken some Highlight online 2-night courses, too, which are very good.)
Anyway, I wanted to use butterscotch candy sun, but it was too long. My Italian grandfather that I fished with & mentioned in the poem always gave me butterscotch candies, that was one reason why I chose butterscotch. I also chose butterscotch because it had a /s/ in the word to go with the other /s/ words, and I thought maybe the reader would be reminded of eating a butterscotch candy, pudding or a butterscotch something. Thank you for your inspiration and encouragement.
See
I tried to see past the grains
To the fields beyond under the sun
Where my feet
Used to run.
But then I heard a whisper, a story
Floating on the breeze.
Remember when
You used to be the wind
On quick, sun-cured legs
Rushing?
Today you are sun
lighting those paths
for others.
Someday those you warm will
no longer be the wind
But have their own
light to share.
It is then they will find you
Laughing in the sky,
twinkling.
By Donna JT Smith ©️6-1-2024
I love this poem that takes us through a lifetime beginning with wind rushing to twinkling stars. Such a magical way to personify these distinct stages. I am wavering in the stage I’m in, trying to slow down and shine my light, but I’m caught in between and not comfortable. Your poem helps me see more clearly that it’s ok to be here.
I loved your ending!: “welcoming peaceful dawn of summer“. It feels that way this year to me. Maybe the hectic has finally moved on and there will be a pleasant sunny feel this year for all!