From Poems to Panic?

 

The pendulum swings, emotions swing with it. Walking in Nature, watching the news...heart conversations with old friends, one with better health news and one with a family tragedy (See below)...watching and listening to the Monks, worrying about the state of things, gluing bits of paper and reading (hearing) poems...

* Across the street from the park - a wide, long grass and tree space

The 18th park... 

Off we went on another warm day - 79° - down the roads and up the hill...off to walk the perimeter of yet another park and to see what we could see. The park had the usual equipment and open spaces. I was really enamored with the look/feel of the large grassy open parkway between the homes and the school. J. tried out some of the exercise equipment, while the children's area was filled with bare feet and squeals of laughter. On the other side of the park was another leg of the city bike/walking path and on the other side of that was another riverbed. 

"At 2.9 miles, the Cliffie Stone Trail in Santa Clarita runs parallel to the west side of the San Francisquito Creek corridor. Relatively flat and easily accessible from the adjacent residential areas, the trail’s sandy surface makes it best suited for horses and confident hikers. The creekbed offers a variety of different native plants and wildlife." LINK

We crossed the road, heading down the sweet scented cement path, marveled at the stillest hummingbird and then discovered the path to the riverbed.

California Sagebrush, Mule Fat, Buckwheat, Cottonwoods...

We could tell water had rushed through not too long ago, as so many of the plants were laid over with debris caught in their roots and branches. Some crows and one lizard and lots of quiet.

A bone, a rock with deep lines...tons of scat and footprints...the sand provided a lot of exercise for my legs, before we crossed back over the bike/walking path to our car. I tried doing some research...it seems the Cliffie Stone trail leads a long way - over towards Tesoro Park (where we went recently). I wish I was 30 years younger and could take advantage of all of the trails across this valley. I would love to be able to walk and walk and walk, but I know those days are long gone.

From an email today...I again share one of Carri's heartfelt posts. 💕 Please go HERE to listen to Carri's post of "Necessary Clutter". I would also suggest that if you enjoy her post, that you subscribe. She posts about once a month and every one has been worth sharing. Honestly.

This one had me thinking about the way we live our lives in the year 2026 compared to the time I felt the writings had captured. It made me think that it is not about coined terms that lose all meaning in the bustle of today's world. Both Cynthia Lora and Barbara Kingsolver capture a time when memories were built on mere acts of doing, not on intentional creation. The way the quilt stitches fell, the family humor held over generations, or the touching of earth were daily makings, things that just happened to happen...things that were just done. They did not have an official name at the time. I am left to wonder what the babies of today will absorb into their memory banks as they move through days of "wake windows" and "contact naps" or "tummy time"...when every experience has been captured on a camera, a video...a vlog and shared with the world...what will be the things that sink deep into their hearts. What will be their stitches and scents? For they don't have to be 'events' implemented on purpose to provide "core memories", do they? They may well be the life happenings and sensory explorations that fill a heart beyond measure.

My heart was filled with my mother's scent, honeysuckle flowers - sweet for the taking, hot sidewalks on bare feet and grass itching the backs of my knees...the place where my love resides is in the scent of Camp Kinneret, songs of protest and camaraderie that was never named as such.

A reminder in my drawing/journal book, with an added Knot-Bird. Breathe. Hold your peace. Build your own nest.

*A note (as mentioned above)

My friend and her family are suffering through the loss of their beloved daughter, sister granddaughter, mother. Her story is incomplete at this time, but the pain is 100%. If you'd like to donate to her Go Fund Me, you can do so HERE.

Where do you lay your heart?

 

May you take a new path

May you share your heart

May you support those you love

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2026

Flowers Ah-Ha!

 

Flowers were actually dancing in the breeze this day!

Becoming Myself

LINK 15:54 minutes

“Instructions for living a life.
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.”

― Mary Oliver

I've been listening to this CD in the car...a lot! We have a history together. The song "Flowers" is a real favorite because it has such deep, meaningful teaching memories for me.

When I worked with Kindergarten students, they had a 'required' rest time. They didn't sleep... ever. So, I had the daily opportunity to introduce them to all kinds of music. Music they most likely would not have heard otherwise. I played a wide variety of music and particular artists that were more on the 'listen while resting' side of things. This CD was most loved, but we listened to Carlos Nakai flute music and the greatest hits of Louis Armstrong - where "What a Wonderful World" was beloved - they were often inspired to draw rainbows after their introduction to this song 🙂. There were many others, but you get the point.

This song, "Flowers" has such fond memories for me...I even played it for J. on the way to City Park the other day. haha It got stuck in his head and I have heard little Ah-Ha's! escape.

My kindergarten students would lay on their mats in the darkened Childcare Building...resting. When this song played, I would hear tiny 5 year old voices popping up around the room - singing Ah-Ha! I could see their little bodies wiggle with the joy of this song (so much for resting, eh?! haha) and then came another round of Ah-Ha's! I can still picture this scene.

I loved teaching. Being with the children (of all ages) brought me just as much joy over the years. Joy and connections in our shared experiences. Some of those run so deep that my old co-workers (really friends at this point) still talk about them. The ability to be present and make such meaning is a value beyond words.

As I've listened, I've thought a lot about Deb, as a fellow teacher and about Marti as a dance lover (track #9)! And...so many grandchildren for all.

You can listen to "Flowers" HERE (the words are there too)

This is the CD it is on.

Connections are the fiber of our existence. I've added the word to the Word Cloth, which is getting very full of great words!

How do you build connections? 

 

May you hold close the very best memories

May you sing along with life

May you collect important words as you go

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2025

Considering Walls

 

Today...sigh, today.

I started this post days ago...well, longer ago than that, as I had remembered a line of this poem below and commented with it on an old post of Jude's. I've been considering it ever since.

Today, today I consider it all anew.

Mending Wall

By Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of out-door game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,

But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father’s saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’

Credit: Found on Poetry Foundation

They link a Poem Guide, which you can find HERE

This guide was an interesting read, it really was. And it is still timely, very timely. Here is a quote that sort of stopped me in my tracks:

"Moreover, according to Kosc, Frost exclaimed about Israel-Palestine divisions: “Stones and stones, and walls and walls, and barbed wire, wire, wire. The shame of it! That barbed wire was invented in America!” 

I wonder what Frost would add to his thoughts today?

The color here is not "true" - it is taken inside at night, with a flash...it's fuzzy. It is all white.

I wove it as "snow" after seeing so much at Jude's. I titled it 'snow' or 'winter'.

But, tonight, upon completing it and photographing it...maybe it is a 'wall' instead? It read 'desert' to J.

Maybe it is not as white as I thought? Maybe it is Dirty Snow? That feels fitting for today. Something pure and something dirty.

When you hit a wall, how do you get over, go around or knock it down?

May you spend time deeply considering things 

May you consider them again

May you keep an open mind, but may you stand firm as well

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2025 

#goodenough