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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

The Morning Porch
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Plummer’s Hollow

April 22, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Another cold morning. During a pause in the robin’s song, I can hear the spring peepers’ tireless ME ME ME ME ME down in the marsh.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin, spring peeper
April 21, 2013April 21, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Crows mobbing an owl, the sun breaking through clouds, a field sparrow’s cup filling to the brim… April is still an unknown country to me.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags field sparrow
April 20, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Hard rain with a bit of wind. But dreariness is impossible with so many variations on yellow: spicebush, forsythia, daffodils, pussy willow.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags daffodils, forsythia, pussy willow, spicebush
April 19, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Gray sky. Distant drumming of a grouse—so faint, it could be the mountain’s own heartbeat. A rabbit in the lilac scratches behind its ear.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cottontail, lilac, ruffed grouse
April 18, 2009 by Dave Bonta

First morning without long johns: my legs feel like orphans in their tunnels of denim. The air is full of gnats and the gobbling of turkeys.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
April 17, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Rattle and rasp from a hole in the eaves where the starlings are moving in. A pair of ravens low over the ridge. The sun’s blazing nest.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags raven, starling, white-tailed deer
April 16, 2009 by Dave Bonta

An orange tabby appears at the side of the porch, and we stare at each other with alarm. Sun spreads through the treetops like an epidemic.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
April 15, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Another cold and rainy morning. A white spot up in the woods is nothing but foam on a black birch trunk. How long until the shadbush bloom?

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Categories Plummer's Hollow
April 14, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Beside the rosette of mullein leaves like thumbless felt mittens beaded with rainwater, the feral cat pauses to yowl.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cats, mullein
April 13, 2009 by Dave Bonta

White sky, weak sun, a hollow knocking from the quarry. A winter wren holds forth below the old corrall, rambling, introspective.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags winter wren
April 12, 2009 by Dave Bonta

A ray of sun penetrating the lilac illuminates the two daffodils at the base of its hind legs, and the dog statue stands on yellow stars.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags daffodils, lilac
April 11, 2009 by Dave Bonta

In the cold rain, a pair of phoebes sit on a branch of the lilac overhanging my sidewalk, flicking their tails and gazing at the portico.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags lilac, phoebe
April 10, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Twenty minutes after the feral cat disappeared under the porch, the squirrel still scolds. Rain is a soft patter of lead shot—or so I wish.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags cats, gray squirrel, sunrise
April 9, 2009 by Dave Bonta

Myrtle, speedwell, daffodils, bittercress—who cares if it’s 26 degrees? At the edge of the woods, a solitary vireo’s slow and dreamy song.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags blue-headed vireo, daffodils
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On This Day

  • October 31, 2025
    Cold wind seasoned with rain—almost maritime weather. I sit in my old barn coat like a barnacle, listening for the approach of dawn.
  • October 31, 2024
    A cloud that started life as a contrail turns livid as a cut then slowly fades to white before dissolving. A white-throated sparrow repeatedly sings a single, interrogatory note.
  • October 31, 2023
    As the moonlight fades, pale patches remain—a killing frost. The woods’ edge is nearly bare of leaves below the brick-red crowns of the oaks.
  • October 31, 2022
    A half hour after sunrise, a rattling in the fallen leaves: raindrops! Slowly accelerating into an actual shower. Which peters out much too soon.
  • October 31, 2021
    The rain stops but the trees go on dripping. The sky brightens. Through newly bare spicebush branches, I can see the springhouse once again.

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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