19 March 2026 (a few snowflakes)

a few snowflakes . . .

roadside pussy willows

stretch across a ditch

11 April 2025 (roadside)

roadside pussy willows . . .

shivering in the long line

for ice cream

22 March 2025 (spring rain)

spring rain

pussy willows heavy

with anticipation

28 April 2024 (a wet mink)

a wet mink

bounds up the riverbank . . .

catkins in bloom

18 March 2024 (everything)

everything i want

right now

pussy willows

7 April 2023 (new meds)

I just want to express gratitude to those readers/friends who reached out to me this week to make sure I was ok. I did post a few haiku that were bleak in tone, but I hasten to assure you that all is well and those poems (including this one) are not representative of my personal reality! But I was really touched that some people in my life read my haiku closely enough to be worried about me and reach out—thank you very much for caring.

***

new meds . . .

fog-wet pussy willows

embrace a power line

23 April 2021 (snow)

spitting snow

pussy willows leaf out

in a vase

March 4: Signs of Spring, Part IV

After Basho

 

Finishing vodka

to use the bottle--

a vase for pussy willows.

Posted with Blogsy

February 25: Signs of Spring, Part I

in dirty snow

at the margins of the town dump

first pussy willows

Posted with Blogsy

March 19: The night before spring begins

No woodcocks twittering

in the frozen alders,

no pussy willow buds.

Posted with Blogsy

February 10: Pussy Willow

A friend told me recently that when he first moved to Maine, to the boonies of Montville, his 80-year old neighbor told him that every winter she just counted down the days till February 10. Why that date? he wondered. Because, she told him, that's when we start to feel the heat of the sun again here in Maine.

We certainly felt the heat of the sun today, with 45-degree temperatures and clear skies. Up on Beech Hill, where the trail was enjoying a brief mud season, I even came across a pussy willow with two catkins (which was a challenge to photograph in a strong wind).

Hard to imagine that we haven't really turned the corner into spring, that it's going to snow several inches tomorrow and be icy cold on Sunday. But, hey, it's February 10. When the sun does come back out, we'll feel its heat again, more pussy willows will bud, then leaf out. And soon the warmth will be here to stay, for a few months at least.

Catkins in the snow--

even the willow knows when 

earth tilts toward the sun.