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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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November 28, 2007

Dave Bonta November 28, 2007

To see the sunrise, I have to walk to the edge of the porch and look west: red ridge, the gibbous moon high overhead, a pair of ravens.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged raven, sunrise

November 27, 2007

Dave Bonta November 27, 2007

Shifting patterns of gray in a sky that has just stopped raining. A crow caws seven times. Suddenly everything acquires an orange tint.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow

November 26, 2007

Dave Bonta November 26, 2007

—Every season is deer season; this is the opening day of rifle season. —Where are the rifles, then? —Zipped up in their cases, staying dry.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged deer

November 25, 2007

Dave Bonta November 25, 2007

Clear, cold and very still. Sun in the treetops. A black cat steals out from underneath the porch and sets off all the squirrel alarms.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged gray squirrel

November 24, 2007

Dave Bonta November 24, 2007

Last night, the ground sparkled; now it’s the color of moonlight forgotten by the moon. A chickadee lands on the lawn and has a taste.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged chickadee

November 23, 2007

Dave Bonta November 23, 2007

Titmice and chickadees inspect the lilac, which lost half its leaves overnight. Déjà vu: they were in my dreams, these birds. These spirits.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged chickadee, lilac, tufted titmouse

November 22, 2007

Dave Bonta November 22, 2007 1

Something approaches at a slow shuffle, gray in the gray light: porcupine. He threads the thistle patch, squeezes under the porch.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged porcupine

November 21, 2007

Dave Bonta November 21, 2007

If woodpeckers are tapping, the sun must be up. The clouds part just long enough to reveal a giant X of jet trails blazing gold.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow

November 20, 2007

Dave Bonta November 20, 2007

Dripdripdrip — rain on the roof. Off in the darkness, the explosive snorting of a deer: coyote? Bear? Human? Something with the wrong odor.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged deer

November 19, 2007

Dave Bonta November 19, 2007

Under a low cloud cover, the mountain still white with snow, dawn grows from the ground up. My growling stomach is the loudest thing.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow

November 18, 2007

Dave Bonta November 18, 2007

Puffs of white smoke where squirrels forage in snow-covered birches. One squirrel falls twenty feet to the ground and lands with a soft FLUMP.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged gray squirrel

November 17, 2007

Dave Bonta November 17, 2007

An hour before dawn, I sit motionless, watching Venus climb slowly through the leaves of an oak, dazzling first my right eye, then my left.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged Venus

November 16, 2007

Dave Bonta November 16, 2007

A strong gust of wind brings a red oak leaf into my lap. I watch high-flying leaves cross paths with a flock of waxwings.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged cedar waxwing, oaks

November 15, 2007

Dave Bonta November 15, 2007

Wind and rain. On the ornamental cherry tree beside the porch, fat drops dangle from the bare spots between yellow-orange leaves.

Posted in Plummer's Hollow
Tagged cherry tree

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On This Day

  • July 1, 2024
    Cold and partly cloudy. A hummingbird buzzes in to sip from the jewelweed below the porch, then up to forage for small invertebrates on the…
  • July 1, 2022
    I watch a new squirrel figure out the tree-to-tree route out of the woods, backtracking, sizing things up. The sun goes in.
  • July 1, 2016
    A brown thrasher sings behind the house, repeating each line as usual like a didactic jazz soloist. The sun struggles blearily to come out.
  • July 1, 2015
    The sun makes a brief appearance; a breeze picks up. The bluebottle fly moves to the lee side of the railing and rubs its forefeet…
  • July 1, 2012
    A thin bead curtain hangs from the walnut tree: tiny tussock moth caterpillars, curled tight as question marks, rappelling down to the road.

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.

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