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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

The Morning Porch
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equinox

March 20, 2026 by Dave Bonta

Equinox. I make it out onto the porch just as the sun peeks over the ridge. Phoebes are calling. From the top of a walnut tree, the brown-headed cowbird’s liquid lisp.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, cowbird, equinox, phoebe, spring equinox, sunrise
March 20, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Thin, high clouds—enough to blur the edges of shadows. Whenever the robin pauses for breath, I can hear a phoebe calling up by the barn. Spring is here.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags American robin, clouds, equinox, phoebe
March 20, 2022 by Dave Bonta

Cold and gloomy—classic March weather for the equinox. A Cooper’s hawk calls from the treetops, underneath which two squirrels chase, oblivious.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Cooper's hawk, equinox, gray squirrel
September 22, 2020 by Dave Bonta

Equinox. I spot some goldenrod, done flowering, turning yellow a second time. My mother stops by to tell me about a singing porcupine.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags equinox, goldenrod, porcupine
May 25, 2024September 22, 2018 by Dave Bonta

White sky, bleary sun. Cold air, hot coffee. That equinoctial balance. Crickets trill, chipmunks tick, aspen leaves flip back and forth.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags chipmunks, crickets, equinox, quaking aspen

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On This Day

  • June 14, 2025
    Rain at dawn tapering off into another patter alongside the red-eyed vireo’s. Wood thrushes sing back and forth. From deep in the lilac, a house finch lets loose.
  • June 14, 2024
    Overcast at sunrise. The jumping spider who lives under my chair comes topside for a brief scuttle about. A red-bellied woodpecker bangs on his morning drum.
  • June 14, 2023
    The rains continue. The last peony blossom collapsed in the night, and the last purple iris has opened. Where mowed grass had died, there’s a blush of green.
  • June 14, 2022
    Rain thickens into downpour, but a very small moth continues to fly back and forth. The evening primroses remain half closed.
  • June 14, 2020
    If the sun isn’t going to shine, we still have the irises, the evening primroses, and a goldfinch fresh from his bath: a trifecta of yellow.

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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