The Early Iris Bloom
The stretching stem shoots through the mulching grass.
It tries to reach the sun and must not fail.
The new bloom calls for kisses from the clouds
And raindrops fall to tickle beardlets pale.
Today, the northern wind is stiff and cold.
Too bad, the iris might have sprung too fast.
I cut the bud and pressed it in a book.
Kept there, it may not grow, but it will last.
Someday, perhaps in years, I may recall
The sprout that lived and died without a scream
And find the pages where its odors fail
And think its life was nothing but a dream.
This poem is in keeping with the Poem-a-Week project that I started--what?--a month ago? Two months ago? I will be honest. I wrote this poem in about thirty minutes this morning. As Paul Simon once said about his songs, "The good ones come out in a hurry because they want to be out." I'll let you be the judge of whether this poem is any good, but it did not take long to write. Email me and let me know what you think.
How about another picture of an iris from the yard?
Okay, now some pictures from Day Two of our Spring Break trip (a very short one!) to Eminence, MO and the surrounding area.
The Current River from a Bluff at Powder Spring.
A Cave at Powder Spring Recreation Area along the Hiking Trail
Part of the Wild Horse Herd
A short note here: Kellie and I had heard about the wild horses in the Eminence area since we started going there regularly about five years ago. We had seen plenty of poop evidence for the horses, but we had never seen the horse before. These four (One is hiding behind the closest horse. You can see the extra legs.) were in a herd of ten near Prairie Hollow Grove. We saw another smaller herd later in another field near Shawnee Creek. So, we saw them not once but twice on this particular day.
Of course, you may be familiar with Alley Spring Mill (above) by now. It is one of our favorite visiting and hiking spots. I take a picture from the same place every time we go there, and every picture looks different.
Finally, for today--and I wish I had a better shot--is the Devil's Well. It is a hole in the ground that opens into an underground lake. You can see that public access to the hole has been blocked with metal grates. My hands are sticking through metal bars that also blocks entry way so that I could get this picture. According to the literature posted at the site, the lake is 100 feet below the surface of the ground at this point, and the water is 80 to 150 feet deep. The water level rises and falls inside of the cave seasonally. The lake comes out of the Earth at Cave Springs which quickly flows into the Current River. Kellie and I have saved the hike to Cave Springs for another day when we can start early because it is a nine mile hike in and out. As always, I hope that you have enjoyed this short foray into my life and my mind. Let me know what you think.
