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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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Canada geese

October 1, 2009 by Dave Bonta

A sudden commotion of geese. I run to scan the sky out of habit, as if they were migratory, and their “V” still a horn open to the north.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Canada geese
September 18, 2009 by Dave Bonta

One of the autumn grasses beloved of Basho blooms an alien red at the edge of the yard. Sudden jumbled music from a V of non-migrant geese.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Canada geese, Japanese stiltgrass 2 Comments
October 21, 2008 by Dave Bonta

Canada geese. What leaf is small and black and falls more slowly than a feather? A fire dances up in the trash burner, the brightest thing.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Canada geese, fire 3 Comments
April 22, 2008 by Dave Bonta

In the half-light, the faint crackling sound of a deer eating a rose bush. A lone Canada goose flies over, honking enough for a whole flock.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Canada geese, deer, multiflora rose
November 9, 2007 by Dave Bonta

A doe trailed by a scrawny 5-point buck. The soundtrack includes a train, a raven, geese, a wren, and a low-flying plane with a wide eraser.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Canada geese, Carolina wren, deer, plane, raven, train
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On This Day

  • September 2, 2025
    Sun floods the treetops. I sneeze so loudly it sets off the neighbor’s dog, a quarter-mile away. The scrabble of claws from a high-speed red squirrel chase.
  • September 2, 2024
    Crystal-clear and cool. A screech owl quavers in answer to a distant trill as sun floods the treetops. Autumn is here.
  • September 2, 2023
    Clear, cold, and still. Two hours after sunrise, the sun finally strikes my face. Random chirps from migrant birds. The first cicada starts up.
  • September 2, 2022
    Cool and clear except for wisps of shredded contrails. Sound is out of the east: rumble of a train, the quarry’s grind.
  • September 2, 2021
    And just like that, it’s autumn: clear and cool, the meadows yellow with goldenrod. A hummingbird visits the Mexican sunflower. How long till she’s off to Mexico herself?

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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