Ramps, rain, fiddleheads, waterfalls, mud, allergies, ticks, trout…  on goes the list.

In the few short months of Spring/Summer, a lot needs to happen as soon as the weather shift takes place. The snow has melted, leaving a mess on the property.  The firewood stack has dwindled. The lawn mower needs a resurrection; a new batch of chemical-free bug spray needs to be concocted.  The list is endless.

This spring I have welcomed with wide open arms, as she marks the end of my Mom’s chemo, and perhaps a tiny promise of a return to slight normalcy.

Enter ‘In Bloom, 2017’, my first official gallery exhibition, shared with two amazing artists, Alix Hallman Travis and Mary Overly Davis, at the Common’s Gallery.

Finally my poetry and photography on the same wall for all the world to see. Actually, not sure how I feel about that now that I see it in writing….

This collection is over three years in the making. Since I have moved to the Catskills, there has been abundant inspiration for my poetry and photography to intersect and intertwine. I have taken hordes of landscapes and also close ups blooms that bless these mountains, wether native or cultivated.

Of course, for me the first herald of spring is not a bloom at all, but rather a pointed little green nosing itself from beneath the decaying leaves: ramps, aka, wild leeks.

Whatever Spring means for you, or to you, be sure to embrace her. In the Catskills, Spring is fleeting yet fulfilling.

And with that…I leave you with a poem…or several.

MOTHER’S DAY BY A COVERED BRIDGE ON THE BEAVERKILL – A HAIKU COLLECTION

Pool of peace –
water flows steady beneath
stockade of trusses.

Glowing sun heats
freshly bared skin as hope grows;
a chartreuse promise.

Green and blue sea glass:
tiny gems too fragile for
this fast, fickle stream.

Distant thoughts hover
like black flies or nymphs just caught
in daydreams of silk.

Here we both sit:
Fly rods and trout, lens and pen
peace pulling us in.