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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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sunrise

March 17, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Ground fog up in the field glows faintly orange in the sunrise. Under the old dog statue, a cartoon yelp of yellow: the first daffodil.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags daffodils, dog statue, fog, sunrise 5 Comments
February 21, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Sunrise. The bluebird warbles once, as if unsure whether it really will be that kind of day. The cardinal keeps singing his one good note.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags bluebird, cardinal, sunrise 2 Comments
February 13, 2012 by Dave Bonta

The wistful two notes of the chickadee’s spring song. The gray clouds begin to turn pink. A rabbit dashes into the lilac when I stand up.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black-capped chickadee, cottontail, lilac, sunrise 1 Comment
February 1, 2012February 1, 2012 by Dave Bonta

Dark clouds part in the west, flooding the yard at sunrise with sunset light. A log furred with white fungi glows in the snow-free woods.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fungi, sunrise 1 Comment
January 29, 2012January 29, 2012 by Dave Bonta

This could be March, were it not for the late, slow-rising sun. The powerline right-of-way is a band of yellow light through the dark woods.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags powerline, sunrise 4 Comments
January 7, 2012January 7, 2012 by Dave Bonta

If I hold my head perfectly still, I can watch the sun move through the winter woods, climbing from limb to limb toward the untrammeled sky.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags sunrise 6 Comments
December 25, 2011 by Dave Bonta

Cloudless at sunrise, and the yard a-glitter with frost. It’s dead silent, save for the stream’s gurgle and a raven croaking high overhead.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags frost, raven, stream, sunrise
December 24, 2011 by Dave Bonta

Snow like a coating of mildew on fallen leaves. Sunrise turns the western ridge blood-red, punctuated by the yellow ribs of dead trees.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags snow, sunrise 3 Comments
December 19, 2011December 19, 2011 by Dave Bonta

Cold with a heavy inversion layer. While traffic roars over the ridge to the west, the sun clears the eastern ridge, a silent howl of light.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags I-99, sunrise 4 Comments
December 2, 2011 by Dave Bonta

Cold at sunrise. A squirrel gathers clumps of dry leaves from the last oak to still have them and stuffs them into the top of a hollow snag.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags gray squirrel, oaks, sunrise 1 Comment
November 28, 2011November 28, 2011 by Dave Bonta

The clouds part just above the horizon, where a weak sun glimmers like a bonfire among the skeletal trees. Distant shots ring out.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags hunters, sunrise 1 Comment
November 1, 2011 by Dave Bonta

Traffic through the gap is loud this All Saints Day morning. Sunrise reddens the western ridge, and a thin mist rises from the snow.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags snow, sunrise, trucks 1 Comment
October 5, 2011 by Dave Bonta

Sunrise, and the sky is clear. From behind the red ridge, two train whistles blow at the same time in different keys. A car door slams.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags sunrise, train 2 Comments
July 23, 2011 by Dave Bonta

Overcast at sunrise, with a cool breeze. A gray catbird in the middle of the gray driveway picks pebbles for the collection in its gizzard.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags catbird, sunrise 4 Comments
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On This Day

  • October 30, 2025
    Hard rain easing off by mid-morning. The sky brightens. A junco by the springhouse warbles its most complex song.
  • October 30, 2024
    Dawn. High in a red oak crown an acorn lets go, tapping the branches on its way down like a blind man’s cane.
  • October 30, 2022
    Late in rising, I’m grateful to the oaks for still holding leaves—I don’t need sunglasses. My brother texts: Savannah sparrows in the field!
  • October 30, 2021
    Fog. A squirrel is peeling ribbons of bark from the branches of the big tulip tree. And all these years I’ve been blaming porcupines!
  • October 30, 2020
    Five minutes after I check the weather app to verify it’s going to stay cloudy, the sun comes out. The damp forest glistens like a salamander.

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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