solstice

Wednesday December 21, 2016

Dave Bonta December 21, 2016

As the clouds thin, the flat-white ground acquires a gloss. Trees grow tenuous shadows, improbably long and skinny on this shortest of days.

Sunday December 21, 2014

Dave Bonta December 21, 2014 1

Jays, crows, and a raven: the solstice soundtrack. When I open my laptop, a red bead of a ladybug is huddled among the black keys.

Tuesday December 21, 2010

Dave Bonta December 21, 2010 5

Solstice sunrise turns the western ridge red as an altar. A brown creeper fishes in all the dark valleys of the walnut tree’s bark.

Monday June 21, 2010

Dave Bonta June 21, 2010

Solstice sun in the treetops. The lilac quivers as two titmice move through, grooming it for insects. A fawn dances out into the meadow.

Saturday December 22, 2007

Dave Bonta December 22, 2007

Yakety-yak on the porch, dee dee dee in the birches, and everywhere a drip drip drip drip drip: gray solstice morning.

June 25, 2016
When the neighbors' rooster finally stops crowing, the incessant singing of the red-eyed vireo seems as hushed as the murmur of a stream.
June 25, 2015
Weak sunlight: a milkiness in the sky like the film that forms over the eyes of the dead. A lone fawn runs bleating through the forest.
June 25, 2012
Cool and clearing. Three deer chase through the meadow, coats sleek with dew, bounding high to glimpse each other through the tall weeds.
June 25, 2011
Spots of red in the garden: old leaves on the evening primroses, new leaves on the witch hazel, which seems to be having a prolonged spring.
June 25, 2010
The first beebalm's forked, scarlet tongues. Nearby on a still-green bergamot bud, a netwing beetle's antennae test the sudden sunlight.
June 25, 2009
Beside the springhouse, the twittering zoom of a hummingbird's courtship dive: from sunlight into cattail shadows and back. Tanager song.
June 25, 2008
A squirrel is making a nest in a black locust with small branches it bites off a little higher up, plundering the roof to build the floor.