First Snow #PoetryFriday #natember #haikuforhope #haikuforhealing #haikuforkindness

It’s Poetry Friday and Tanita Davis is our hostess this week for the poetry roundup on her blog, (fiction, instead of lies). I hope to see you there! Tanita’s post is bursting with gratitude and writing opportunities for all.

We received our first blast of wintery snow on Monday and Tuesday here in New England. I’m a terrible storm cleaner upper, because I’m always distracted by post-storm sights and sounds. After our cleanup was finished, and my husband went inside to warm up, I stayed outside with my camera to capture a few images. Little bits of poetry continued to drift down around me mixed in with the storm’s final flakes. My main concerns with heavy snow are fragile branches, particularly those of our beloved Japanese Maple. Many branches were bowed down and some were trapped by the drifts around the trunk. Fortunately, the sun came out late in the afternoon, and the snow began to melt. Right before my eyes, branches began, one by one, to bounce back. Inspiration for today’s haiku, which I am writing daily during the month of December with poetry pals Heidi Mordhorst, Mary Lee Hahn, Catherine Flynn, Jone MacCulloch, and others. You can follow along with the hashtags you see above.

When I returned to school on Wednesday, I showed my Kindergarten poets the same image I used for my haiku, and here is what they came up with.

Poor tree indeed!

Thanks for hosting this week, Tanita. Now let’s bring on the poetry!

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