Welcome to My Website
One Last Beauty
I want the world to come to me
with yellow daffodils
and white butterflies
or a serving of chocolate cream bruleeon a porcelain plate
while I sit on the sun porch
reading Wordsworth
and flipping through a book of art
by Matisse.
I want a dark handsome man
to gently brush my hair away
as he kisses the nape of my neck
and unbuttons the back of my dress.
I don’t want the news of yet another
polar bear drowning
as the ice caps melt,
or stories of mutated frogs
with legs growing out of their stomachs,
or the report of 4000
Red-winged Blackbirds dropping dead
from the sky on New Years Eve.
Please spare me the fact
of the colony collapse of honey bees.
Bring me news
a field of daffodils may bring.
Show me the blue sky of hope
after the acid rain.
Show me the resiliency
of that last brilliant cricket
who sings its song
after all other creatures are gone.
I want the world to come to me
with yellow daffodils
and white butterflies
or a serving of chocolate cream bruleeon a porcelain plate
while I sit on the sun porch
reading Wordsworth
and flipping through a book of art
by Matisse.
I want a dark handsome man
to gently brush my hair away
as he kisses the nape of my neck
and unbuttons the back of my dress.
I don’t want the news of yet another
polar bear drowning
as the ice caps melt,
or stories of mutated frogs
with legs growing out of their stomachs,
or the report of 4000
Red-winged Blackbirds dropping dead
from the sky on New Years Eve.
Please spare me the fact
of the colony collapse of honey bees.
Bring me news
a field of daffodils may bring.
Show me the blue sky of hope
after the acid rain.
Show me the resiliency
of that last brilliant cricket
who sings its song
after all other creatures are gone.
My Calendar
View all the events that I've added to my online calendars here.
Kingfisher
Calmness
A swift bird, excellent fisherman, the kingfisher is often seen alone perching near open water. Their head is compact, large in comparison to their body with a solid beak pointy like a dagger. The Belted Kingfisher is the most common found all over the North American continent and has beautiful blue gray markings on their back with a white chest and throat. Other species of kingfishers are found throughout the world.
They are the only small bird that dives nose down except for the tern. Another unusual feature they have is that they lay their eggs in holes along riverbanks and sometimes tunnel in several feet. The males and females both take turns incubating the eggs over a 24 -day period. The female is more colorful than the male, which is rare with birds. They both have a blue bar across the chest, but the female has second rust colored bar across the belly.
In a biblical legend, the kingfisher was the second bird that Noah sent out from the Ark looking for land. The kingfisher flew too high in the sky turning its back blue and too close to the sun scorching its chest. Upset with the bird, Noah made it stay on the ark and catch its food from the water.
The word halcyon became synonymous with the European kingfisher originating from a Greek myth. Halcyone was wife of Ceyux and daughter of the God of the Wind. Ceyux met an untimely death by drowning in the ocean during a storm on his way to consult the oracle of Apollo. Halcyone was so grief stricken after her husband’s body washed ashore, that she threw herself into the ocean and drowned. The gods were so moved by Halcyone’s love that they turned her and Ceyux into kingfishers and they flew off blissfully into the blue sky. In their honor, Zeus declared that the seas were to be calm seven days before and seven days after the winter solstice. These days are now know as the halcyon days and coincide with the nesting period of the kingfisher. The dictionary interpretation of halcyon can mean happy, golden, prosperous or calm and peaceful.
According to other ancient lore, the halcyon could sing and launched its nest made of fish bones on the sea. In actuality the kingfisher has a rattling territorial call and nests inland, but close to where it fishes.
Being near ocean or stream, often has a calming effect to the busy human mind. How fortunate the kingfisher is to spend its days above open water watching for a fish rise to the surface whether it is a river or Mediterranean Sea where the Halcyone myth originated. Watching the beauty of a pair of kingfishers nesting by the waters edge reminds us, that a sense of calm does exist even if it is between storms.
Calmness
A swift bird, excellent fisherman, the kingfisher is often seen alone perching near open water. Their head is compact, large in comparison to their body with a solid beak pointy like a dagger. The Belted Kingfisher is the most common found all over the North American continent and has beautiful blue gray markings on their back with a white chest and throat. Other species of kingfishers are found throughout the world.
They are the only small bird that dives nose down except for the tern. Another unusual feature they have is that they lay their eggs in holes along riverbanks and sometimes tunnel in several feet. The males and females both take turns incubating the eggs over a 24 -day period. The female is more colorful than the male, which is rare with birds. They both have a blue bar across the chest, but the female has second rust colored bar across the belly.
In a biblical legend, the kingfisher was the second bird that Noah sent out from the Ark looking for land. The kingfisher flew too high in the sky turning its back blue and too close to the sun scorching its chest. Upset with the bird, Noah made it stay on the ark and catch its food from the water.
The word halcyon became synonymous with the European kingfisher originating from a Greek myth. Halcyone was wife of Ceyux and daughter of the God of the Wind. Ceyux met an untimely death by drowning in the ocean during a storm on his way to consult the oracle of Apollo. Halcyone was so grief stricken after her husband’s body washed ashore, that she threw herself into the ocean and drowned. The gods were so moved by Halcyone’s love that they turned her and Ceyux into kingfishers and they flew off blissfully into the blue sky. In their honor, Zeus declared that the seas were to be calm seven days before and seven days after the winter solstice. These days are now know as the halcyon days and coincide with the nesting period of the kingfisher. The dictionary interpretation of halcyon can mean happy, golden, prosperous or calm and peaceful.
According to other ancient lore, the halcyon could sing and launched its nest made of fish bones on the sea. In actuality the kingfisher has a rattling territorial call and nests inland, but close to where it fishes.
Being near ocean or stream, often has a calming effect to the busy human mind. How fortunate the kingfisher is to spend its days above open water watching for a fish rise to the surface whether it is a river or Mediterranean Sea where the Halcyone myth originated. Watching the beauty of a pair of kingfishers nesting by the waters edge reminds us, that a sense of calm does exist even if it is between storms.