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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

The Morning Porch
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December 16, 2019 by Dave Bonta

Nasal calls: nuthatch, crow. Snow dry enough not to clump, but wet enough to cling to every twig and give each dried beebalm head a cap.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags beebalm, crow, snow, white-breasted nuthatch
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On This Day

  • July 8, 2025
    Cool, cloudy and humid. A paper wasp drinks rainwater from a spicebush leaf. In the front garden, hummingbirds circle the purple, mop-headed bergamot.
  • July 8, 2024
    Every morning, more soapwort blossoms, and the raspberry canes are stretching into new territory. A harvestman stalks across my gray wasteland of a porch.
  • July 8, 2023
    It’s not raining. A hummingbird inspects my bergamot patch—not quite open—and dips into a soapwort bloom before zooming off.
  • July 8, 2022
    In the flat light of a cloudy morning, bracken fronds glow like the sun-bleached rib cages of seraphim—skeletons gone rococo.
  • July 8, 2021
    Brief rain showers, one after another. A goldfinch lands sideways on a blossoming mullein stalk as if to compare yellows.

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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