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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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April 15, 2013April 12, 2010 by Dave Bonta

The Cooper’s hawk swoops down from the woods’ edge into the ditch and dips his beak again and again in its cold clear blood.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Cooper's hawk, hawks
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On This Day

  • March 17, 2025
    Gray aftermath of a strormy night. Still no phoebe or field sparrow. An icy breeze.
  • March 17, 2024
    Patches of blue. The mourning dove’s incessant cooing finally comes to an end, leaving the daffodils’ ensemble of horns to their silence.
  • March 17, 2023
    In the half-light of dawn, something approaches, rustling in the dry leaves: rain. A few minutes later, the first phoebe begins his time-worn chant.
  • March 17, 2022
    Rain tapping on the porch roof. Robin song echoes off the hillside. From down-hollow, the sound of a crow mob.
  • March 17, 2021
    Another gray day. The only snow left is what the plow mounded up, the earliest dating back to before Christmas: literal snows of yesteryear.

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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