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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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Month: May 2012

August 26, 2012May 17, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Sun in the treetops. A squirrel hangs head-down from a walnut branch to eat the flowers. My lover combs the tangles from her long hair.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, gray squirrel 3 Comments
May 16, 2012 by Dave Bonta

The air is so clear, I can see individual specks of pollen. In the field, the long grass sways under the restless wings of a female harrier.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags northern harrier, pollen 2 Comments
May 15, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Chipmunks chase in the driveway. A hummingbird hovers beside the porch, sipping rainwater from a spiderweb in the tall weeds.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags chipmunks, rain, ruby-throated hummingbird, spiderwebs
May 14, 2012 by Dave Bonta

The female robin leaves her nest in the cedar and lands at the edge of the driveway, gives herself a thorough shake and takes a shit.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin, cedar tree 1 Comment
May 13, 2012 by Dave Bonta

The first purple irises are opening along the rock wall, their three petals descending like the landing gear on spaceships.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags garden, iris 1 Comment
May 12, 2012 by Dave Bonta

A muffled knocking from inside the dead elm. A flicker’s head pops out of a hole and flings a billful of wood chips into the sun.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags elm, flicker 3 Comments
May 7, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Under a heavy gray sky, the trees are so green they almost seem to throb. Two does chase through the deep grass, as playful as fawns.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags deer 1 Comment
May 25, 2024May 6, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Cloudy and cool. The small black ants on the peony buds move sluggishly as lovers stunned by charismatic moons.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags ants, peonies
May 5, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Thin fog. A flicker is excavating a den hole in the dead elm on the other side of the yard, his head almost disappearing into the tree.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags elm, flicker, fog 1 Comment
May 3, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Sun struggles through the humid air: a golden glow. The leaves look twice as big as yesterday, animated by the buzzy calls of warblers.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags sunrise, warblers 3 Comments
May 2, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Dawn. As light grows, more and more shades of green and gold emerge from the forest shadows. Bell-like notes of the first wood thrush.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags dawn, wood thrush 1 Comment
May 1, 2012 by Dave Bonta

An hour past sunrise. The downpour past, a Carolina wren and a common yellowthroat both sing in fast waltz time.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Carolina wren, common yellowthroat, rain 2 Comments
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On This Day

  • April 23, 2025
    A smear of sun, strong enough to cast thin shadows. Four white-throated sparrows trade variations of the same song like old-time fiddlers, trying slightly different…
  • April 23, 2024
    The sun climbs from clarity into murk. Feeling insufficiently caffeinated, I watch the tulip tree’s tall, green torch fade to chartreuse.
  • April 23, 2023
    Cool and damp at sunrise. A small cottontail grazes at the woods’ edge: a salad of tiny leaves. A gnatcatcher’s soft soliloquy.
  • April 23, 2022
    A 30-second rain. I count nine shades of green, all circled by a cardinal in his flame-colored cap. The daffodils once again stand erect.
  • April 23, 2021
    Bright sun. High in the tulip tree, among the shining leaf nubbins, two robins meet for combat and tumble to the ground.

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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