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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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helicopter

March 2, 2026 by Dave Bonta

A white sky except where the sun blazes, whiter than white. A helicopter’s loud, bladed flower. In its wake, the scattered cries of geese.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags Canada geese, clouds, helicopter
November 25, 2014 by Dave Bonta

Dark clouds against light clouds. A distant helicopter. A white-throated sparrow’s plaintive song wandering up and down the scale.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, helicopter, white-throated sparrow 1 Comment
November 10, 2014 by Dave Bonta

Bands of cirrus that might’ve been contrails two hours ago are crossed by a helicopter, ponderous and loud, like an enormous scarab.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags clouds, contrails, helicopter
April 20, 2014 by Dave Bonta

A Chinook helicopter flies low over the trees, with its twin rotors like a pair of malignant insects mating in flight, gravid with soldiers.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags helicopter
July 14, 2011 by Dave Bonta

A helicopter alone in the clear sky: the mingled notes of its motor, high and low. A firefly sails past, inner wings glowing in the sun.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags firefly, helicopter 4 Comments

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On This Day

  • October 17, 2025
    Cold and quiet, with a few clouds. A raven flies over the house issuing stentorian croaks, his mate following in silence.
  • October 17, 2024
    Each dawn this time of year brings revelation: the sky behind the ridgetop trees emerging piecemeal like a puzzle. And between the sun and the clouds there’s a new, transitional state: a crowd of yellow.
  • October 17, 2023
    Gloomy and cold at dawn. From the depths of the seed-laden goldenrod, the first, bright chips and whistles as the sparrow horde wakes up.
  • October 17, 2021
    Cloudy and cold. In the thinning treetops, a squirrel takes a wild leap to lose a suitor. Tulip tree samaras helicopter down.
  • October 17, 2020
    As the rising sun glimmers through the trees, birch and walnut leaves begin to fall, the first hard frost glittering on the ground.

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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