Tuesday, February 24, 2015

hill of the chickadee

deep snow is poor man's fertilizer.
 and the corn ladies
lean away from the west wind,
the wind that here means business and
sometimes destruction.
they who were so tall
bend and almost break in this fierce
cold bluster.
 some endings are so small
they seem pointless,
the why.
this one i lifted to my face.
touched it's silken down,
amazed,
and i brought it to my frozen garden
to be this woman's rich fertilizer.

19 comments:

  1. Awww....I love those little guys. Mine are so puffed up they look like pompoms with beaks today. The corn ladies aren't the only ones hardly standing up to the weather anymore, it seems.

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  2. valerie, and "what a winter" continues!

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  3. I'm sorry for the corn ladies - that wind must be so harsh - but glad you were able to take the wee one home...wishing you Spring.

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  4. fiona, when i held that chickadee to my face and got to know it, it was another level of compassion i'd not imagined. i was glad.

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  5. your winter has been hard on everything - hope spring will soon be on the way.

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  6. Once again your spare right-on writing makes me experience a climate so different from my own that it's like an alien planet. The corn ladies! Tonight we're having what is to us a big snow event: 5 inches expected on top of roads that are still a bit slick with today's thaw of last week's ice and snow cover. Nothing so dramatic and solid as yours!

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  7. jean, the chickadees love winter, at least they seem to. this one met up with a car.
    sharmon, like life
    gwen, solid is a good word for this winter. it feels very much solid.

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  8. It is amazing how animals bring out such strong emotion in us. Your words addressed it so well.

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  9. good to be part of your winter.

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  10. V - the corn ladies always look so resilient - strong in the thick of snow and winter; sad to see little casualties of winter. B

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  11. barry, those amish farmers construct well--even temporary housing for corncobs.

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  12. wouldn't mind a bit of snow. might settle the dust over here

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  13. indie, i'd send you a meadowful if i could...

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  14. Chickadee figures into the Cherokee story Spearfinger. I was looking up images and reading about them yesterday. I was surprised that for latitudes like North Carolina, their range is actually just down the Appalachians. I'm so used to them I hadn't thought about it.

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  15. hi frank, i'd like to know that chickadee story. here, chickadee is singing the spring song. hope.

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