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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

The Morning Porch
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November 15, 2009 by Dave Bonta

After last night’s rain, everything glistens but the four gray forms of deer beneath the lilac, their thin clouds of breath.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags lilac, white-tailed deer
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On This Day

  • October 13, 2025
    Steady rain from heavy clouds, with the seeming glow of orange and yellow leaves in lieu of a sunrise. A drenched gray squirrel beside the porch peers up at the sky.
  • October 13, 2024
    Cloudy at sunrise except just above the eastern horizon: the western ridge turns red, then slowly fades. Inversion makes the interstate sound much too close.
  • October 13, 2023
    Six degrees above freezing and clear at sunrise. The spicebushes next to the road are at their most luminous yellow. Chipmunks tick like asynchronous clocks.
  • October 13, 2022
    Rain tapering off by mid morning. The sun even emerges for one or two seconds, setting off a crow.
  • October 13, 2021
    In thin fog, the soft notes of juncos and white-throated sparrows taking their morning baths in the shelter of a dogwood beside the springhouse.

See all...

Related book

Cover of Ice Mountain with a linocut of a big ridgetop tree.

What I do after I sit on the porch. One winter and spring's daily walks distilled into short poems with linocut illustrations by Beth Adams.

Header image: detail from Paper Garden by Clive Hicks-Jenkins (used by permission)

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