Contact ME

Use the form on the right to contact me.

 

         

123 Street Avenue, City Town, 99999

(123) 555-6789

email@address.com

 

You can set your address, phone number, email and site description in the settings tab.
Link to read me page with more information.

IMG_1267.jpg

Book of Days

BOOK OF DAYS: A POET AND NATURALIST TRIES TO FIND POETRY IN EVERY DAY

Sign up on the Contact Me page

July 16: While driving

Kristen Lindquist

This is the haiku I wrote in my head while driving busy Route 52 to Belfast yesterday:

Driving to the lake
I swerve to avoid it--
child's pinwheel in the road.

A little way up the road I swerved again to avoid another thing in the road, just my side of the double yellow lines. As I was passing it, I realized it was a small painted turtle, head up, very much alive. So I pulled over, got out, stopped a huge truck headed right for it, picked it up, and quickly put it on the other side of the road. I was so relieved that the truck stopped just in time that I almost burst into tears. The driver of the truck said, "There's your good deed for the day!" and seemed pleased that between the two of us, we'd saved the turtle.

So here's the amended haiku:

Driving to the lake
I swerve to avoid it--
turtle crossing the road.

July 10: Tidewater Farm

Kristen Lindquist

For two summers a Little Egret, a species from Africa, has been spending its breeding season in Falmouth, Maine, rather than Europe. One of the best places to observe this bird is at Tidewater Farm, a housing development in Falmouth with a conservation parcel that includes the abandoned buildings of the original farm. The boarded-up old house, with broken windows and graffiti, sits near wetlands along a tidal river. The egret flies upstream with the tides to feed in the shallows, often in the company of native Snowy Egrets. 

I had tried to see this bird a few times, with no luck. But today, thanks to my bird guide friend Derek (of Freeport Wild Bird Supply), in this interesting setting, I finally saw the Little Egret. Not only was it a life bird for me, but it happened to be ABA-area lifer #500, a milestone. Another story 

Abandoned farmhouse
on a tidal stream--
feeding egrets come and go.

July 9: Rainy garden series

Kristen Lindquist

Visited the beautiful Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay this morning, despite persistent drizzle. The paths were less crowded than usual, and the colors and scents of the summer blooms seemed more vivid in the rain.

standing just so
under the flowering dogwood
fragrant pink sky

atop the weathervane
trilling junco
this garden is his

crouching down
so the lavender's eye-level,
I imagine fields full

Star of Persia allium
blown-out blooms
fireworks above the ferns

rain on rose petals
all-natural rosewater
flush of memory