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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

  • November 8, 2025
    Mostly clear after last night’s rain. A flat-tire moon hangs low in the west. The wingbeats of a raven are, for a few moments, the loudest sound.
  • November 8, 2024
    Clear and cold. The red squirrel makes its usual racket while the gray squirrels leap silently through the treetops. The western ridge turns red.
  • November 8, 2023
    The sun clears the ridge and I’m blinded—the oaks are mostly bare now. Those that aren’t, glow red like a scattering of old barns.
  • November 8, 2022
    5:20. Bleary-eyed smudge of an eclipsed moon above the western ridge. 6:20. Pink clouds turn orange. The first song sparrow.
  • November 8, 2021
    Yet another bright blue October day a month late. The scarlet oak Dad and I planted 25 years ago is in its glory, redder than the sunrise.

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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