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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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Month: January 2024

January 2, 2024January 2, 2024 by Dave Bonta

An icy breeze curls around the house and makes the big dial thermometer squeak and moan against the wall: five degrees below freezing. The whistle of a mourning dove’s wings.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cold, mourning doves, wind
January 1, 2024 by Dave Bonta

Overcast and quiet before dawn. A half-inch of fresh snow sticks to everything, glowing faintly in the light of a hidden moon.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags moon, snow 1 Comment
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On This Day

  • November 1, 2025
    Red sky behind red leaves at sunrise. In the yard, big winds have stripped the tulip tree of all but its smallest leaves—the sheerest of dresses.
  • November 1, 2024
    After rain in the small hours, a clearing wind at dawn. Winter wren song issues from a hole in the road bank—a quiet torrent.
  • November 1, 2023
    Wet snow plastered to everything except the moon, somewhere above the clouds. Off to the southeast, a siren starts to wail.
  • November 1, 2022
    Clouds selectively erasing the stars at dawn. A strong inversion layer: traffic noise from the interstate mingles with barred owl calls.
  • November 1, 2021
    They’re shapeshifting daily now, the faces in the thinning treetops silhouetted against the dawn sky. I push my glasses down to unblur the moon.

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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