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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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thunder

July 18, 2026 by Dave Bonta

Breezy and cool, with the smell of smoke a bit diminished. The patter of rain. Three yellow walnut leaves flutter to the ground together. A rumble of thunder.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags black walnut, rain, thunder Leave a comment
February 28, 2024 by Dave Bonta

Fog full of birdsong. I look up from the page to a rumble of thunder that makes the windows shake.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, thunder
July 25, 2022 by Dave Bonta

The sky never gets fully light before thunder starts to rumble. Now it’s getting dark again. The birds fall silent.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags thunder, thunderstorms
April 26, 2022 by Dave Bonta

The tulip trees have burst their buds—a gray-green haze. Hermit thrush in my left ear, thunder in my right.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags hermit thrush, thunder, tulip tree

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On This Day

  • August 13, 2025
    A dawn chorus of tree crickets, field crickets and mole crickets. After a half-clear sunrise, the clouds move in.
  • August 13, 2024
    A meteor streaks the dawn sky—a fast, yellow brushstroke. From over the ridge, the quarry’s dull grind. The first, faint twittering from the meadow.
  • August 13, 2023
    Sun in the treetops. A Carolina wren keeps answering a flicker, as if trying to master its call. Tree crickets. A train horn.
  • August 13, 2022
    45F/7C at sunrise. I carry a chair up into the woods, watch sunlight seep down the oaks with color commentary by a red-eyed vireo.
  • August 13, 2021
    First light. A meteor slices through Orion below the belt, and I flinch like a spectator at a pro wrestling match.

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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