Happy Friday, Poetry Friends! In spite of but also because of all the dire and drastic news from around the world, I wish for you tiny moments of respite, such as the ones we’ve been blessed with recently when the hummingbird comes to the zinnias and sweet peas in our garden.
If you’re up for a challenge, here’s what the Poetry Peeps are working on for next Friday.
Carol has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at The Apples In My Orchard.
Edited to add Sharon Olds’ poem for reference:
A(nother) Year of Reading 
Mary Lee, I love watching for hummingbirds and I saw one recently at some store bought red salvia, not at the feeder I so often forget to refill. I love your beautiful imagery and word choice “hover-flip-sip.” Thanks for this moment of respite.
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Simply gorgeous! It’s been a sketchy year for hummers, but they are still flying through.
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Great ending! Thank you for the respite, and for sharing Olds’ wonderful poem.
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Love your poem! I had almost give up on seeing any hummingbirds this season, and then I caught a glimpse. I agree, they are like a miracle. Thanks for this!
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Mary Lee, your poem makes me want to be creative tonight even though my bed is calling me. I could barely find the time to finish my blog and post it today with the little girls here since yesterday morning. I shared about your bountiful summer poem swap. I just love the deck you designed for me.
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I saw my first hummingbird this year last week. It was a “stop everything and watch” moment. Your garden sounds like just the place a hummingbird would want to be.
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Mary Lee, I love your Ode to the Hummingbird poem. Hummers are some of my favorite things to watch. We have a feeder right outside our kitchen window where a feeder hangs with nectar for them. However, I also have zinnias and other flowers for them as well. I miss their fast activity during the winter months. Thanks for sharing this respite from the sad and scary news of the day.
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I love the hummingbirds that grace our area. And the line from the Olds’ poem is terrific. Our community is rich with poems and celbrations. I hope to have a poem for next week.
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It’s lovely, Mary Lee. I love the joy that hummingbirds give us & your contrite poem makes me smile & also be glad that you’ve found “an altar of beauty” for your own bird guests!
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I love, love, love these final lines: “…that we cultivate an altar of beauty/where together we can worship.” I also planted zinnias on a whim and have been surprised to see the hummingbirds savoring them. Great use of Olds’s great poem as a mentor!
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This is beautiful, Mary Lee. The poem and the photographs, both.
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What a lovely use you have made of that wonderful dirt poem! I’m ridiculously pleased to encounter your packet of zinnias again, growing into an altar for the brief evening worship of the hummingbird’s particular miracle. I’ve had a couple of close encounters near the trumpet vine and, well, other birds just don’t have the same holiness, do they?
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And I was ridiculously happy to get those zinnias into a poem no matter what. (I’m still planning to work on their villanelle…)
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This is beautiful, Mary Lee. I love this line: “You who ask only that we cultivate an altar of beauty”
I agree that we need to make sure we find moments of respite from what feels like a relentless stream of sad news. You’ve given us one of those moments with your poem. Thank you
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I love this! Because it’s about a bird, and because the hummingbirds in my yard have never gone near my feeders, and because I need moments of respite a LOT these days. The Sharon Olds poem is great, too. Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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Zinnias and hummingbirds both bring me so much joy! Today I stopped in my tracks as a hummingbird briefly visited a towering sunflower in my yard. More typically, they love my bee balm and hollyhock. Your ending lines are perfect.
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I’m with you, Mary Lee. The hummingbirds have ignored our sugar water feeder and head straight for the Bee Balm and Sweet William. I love your phrase “hover-flit-slip.”
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“cultivate an alter of beauty”nature’s beauty brings moments of rest—thanks for honoring our dear hummingbird–I hope they’ll come and sip from my zinnias too, they’re just starting to bloom… thanks Mary Lee!
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