poetpotter

Friends own a cottage on a lake and after we'd left on a summer evening, I studied the photo I had taken and thought about how the lake would look as the sun slides further down the horizon. In fact I'd seen it and now I tried to express it in words. It's more beautiful than mere words, but as poets and writers, we still try. The photo below is a sunset in Southampton, Ontario, not at my friends' cottage. Evening on the lake The golden sun sinks behind the pines Changing them from green to black spiky tops are only shadows against a rose-coloured sky. and the bright expanse of sunbeams shrinks upon the lake. poetry and photo © C. R. Wilker

Carefree as the wind that blows today, I share this poem just for fun, one of my own inventions. I grew up on a farm where we had a long washline where we put the clothes out to dry, even in winter. Diapers came in stiff as a board to soften when the cloth warmed, and then we folded them. They always smelled so fresh. This is a poem for summer or fall on a breezy day. Can you picture the pants and shirts, hung next to each other? Perhaps one day I'll find a photo that matches, but for today, just the words. Clothesline Dance Clothespins hold a shirt tail to a pant leg, jacket hem to a dress strap, pillow case to a towel; and six socks one pin per sock They catch the wind    inflate dance and sway when I unclip them bring them indoors they smell like the carefree wind © Carolyn R. Wilker

daisies in my garden--early June My daisies bloomed beautifully in the spring and made it through the June heat with some extra watering. I love this simple flower that I had included in my wedding bouquet 43 years ago. Today I'm thinking of the daisies before they actually came into bloom. Daisy A few petals at a time released from a fisted grip a tiny calyx opens warmed by the ancient sun yellow as the halos you’ll soon display