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Another garden/yard poem this week. I wondered in my comment on Ruth’s post last week if I’d see fireflies this year. I will never again take any of my more-than-human neighbors for granted. But we’ve been blessed. They are still here…for now. Gratitudes to Linda for the “clunker” from which this poem was born: “stir stars in a clockwise motion.”
Next week is a Poetry Sister challenge week (and I think I better get started now!): we’re writing Raccontinos.
The week after that, on Friday, July 4, is the challenge I posed on the roundup host calendar, doubling as the Inkling challenge:
Please join us in writing poems of protest on our nation’s birthday. Let’s use our voices and our art to make some noise! Feel free to write in praise of democracy and patriotism if you’ve just about had it up to here with all of the assorted “Nonsense on Stilts” (a term coined by Jeremy Bentham and also the title of a book by Massimo Pigliucci that Mr. Mary Lee is currently reading).
Carol has this week’s Poetry Friday roundup at The Apples In My Orchard.
A(nother) Year of Reading 
I love your firefly poem, Mary Lee. Like you, I hadn’t seen any for a few years, but this year they are back and as beautiful as ever. And like you, I will never take nature’s gift for granted again – even the fox family who wander through and the deer who help themselves to breakfast treats. We all need to fight for survival in this difficult world.
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Mary Lee, Your firefly poem is wonderful – a celebration of dark nights and wildlife – both of which we need. I especially like the last stanza. I hope we all can express our feelings about the preservation of our freedoms and democracy in the weeks leading up to the forth. I’m anxious for the nonsense to end, too.
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Glad those green stars are swirling in your small patch of yard. We’ve had fireflies, but it seems like not as many as we usually do by now. I can’t imagine summer without them.On another note, tell Mr. Mary Lee that Massimo Pigliucci used to be an evolutionary biologist (which I know because that’s what Mr/Dr Buffy is, and once upon a time they were buds.)
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Wow! Small world!
And evolutionary biologist…WAY cool!!!
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Oh, how I love fireflies. I love your description of them as green stars.
Fireflies always remind me of my maternal grandfather, because he loved them too. One summer, when I was very young and we were visiting, he wanted to briefly capture a few for us kids, to make a lantern, then let them go. He put honey in the jar to attract them but (I’m sure you know what’s coming), they got stuck in the honey. He felt TERRIBLE. But I always think of him when I see fireflies.
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Love this! I have seen a few lightning bugs here. But … I need to be outside after dark a bit more often. One of my goals is to sit in my moon garden after dark this summer. 🙂
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I’m in Maine this week and saw fireflies –out on a bay in a kayak at night! And yes, it did briefly lift the darkness of human destruction. So much work for such small creatures…thank gawd!
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Your “briefly” at the end holds so much weight. I don’t think I’ve seen any fireflies, I’ll have to keep an eye out for them.
Thanks for the link for Raccontino I’ll have to rack my brain around the story part…
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I worked for a looooong time on a draft yesterday and I’m here to tell you that the story was the hardest part for me. I lucked into the rhymes, and then it all kind of fell into place. I’ll try another draft today, because challenge is good, right? 😉
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Yes, challenges are good, especially poetry challenges!
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Those swirling green stars are magical. Thank you for reminding us to treasure them.
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Relief comes like a breeze…Yes, I remember the firefly days when they danced for my children and me. Yet, I do not see them anymore so your poem, Mary Lee, brings back the beautiful memories of nature at its finest night work.
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