Two Nature Poems and a Postcard

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the brilliant and kind Mary Lee Hahn Here. Thank you for hosting!

First things first: a lovely postcard I received from Linda Baie:

I recognize the Colorado sky and mountains




This is good advice, to slow down and enjoy the journey. I tell my sons that, and they are too busy to hear which is ironic. I’m just learning it.

I will also share two poems that were published in December on the Dirigible Balloon website.

MINNOW TAG 

By a boulder, in silvery slivers
swam some minnows, in the river.

I’d see if I could—give it a crack—
grab a few and toss them back.

I grabbed and I grabbed,
but they fled in a flicker,

like shooting stars
They swam even quicker.

©Janice Scully 2021
SOME SPIDERS


Not every spider spins a web
of silky sticky glue
to trap an unsuspecting fly
and gnats that wander through.

I’ve heard about some spiders, 
with fangs for hunting prey.
They don’t need a web at all—
just grab and chomp away! 

If I became an arthropod 
I’d think I’d hunt with silk.
I’d take a nap, pluck my prey,
and eat my snack with milk. 


© Janice Scully 2021

Take care. I hope everyone is healthy.

15 thoughts on “Two Nature Poems and a Postcard”

  1. Glad you received the card, Janice. Happy New Year again! I love your poems. They are fun and clever, made me smile at your snappy endings. Have a nice weekend!

  2. What a fun spider with a quite unique appetite too, and hooray for the quick-silver like minnows fleeing away–love them both! Thanks also for sharing Linda’s Big Blue Colorado Sky New Year Postcard!

  3. Happy New Year Janice! Your minnow poem drew me in and had me trying to catch minnows in my mind as I read it, and the musings of your spider poem are great fun. Thanks for sharing these today!

  4. If you’ve read a better fish poem, ‘let minnow’! Ha!
    Janice, both of your poems put a smile on my face and that’s saying something because I do not like spiders! And yes to Linda’s and your advice to ‘slow down and enjoy the journey’. Luckily poetry helps us with that. 🙂

  5. Terrific poems, Janice. You brought me back to a specific time when we were camping somewhere in the country and found a stream with minnows racing about. We were not successful in our attempt to catch them, but enjoyed the fun! And your spider, I like the lazy silken web approach myself. Lots more time for poetry!! I joined Jone’s postcard exchange for the first time so got one from Linda, and have mine going out tomorrow hopefully. I sent you an email! Stay warm tomorrow. Brrrr….the windchill is well below zero. I am cold already.

  6. Happy New Year and congratulations on your publications!

    I loved the New Year card you sent, especially since I knew (from reading here) the history behind the bell and its purpose!

  7. Ha! I used to spend hours (or, what felt like hours) on my tummy watching minnows and trying to catch them. I love that poem! Or, were they guppies I tried to catch? I can’t remember the fish…but the poem brings back the feel of that rock I used to lay on, next to my sister at the creek in summer. Great job and congrats!

  8. Janice, What fun you have captured in those two poems published on the Dirigible Balloon’s website! Congratulation on that! It is my first time participating in the postcard exchange and the postcards I created came a couple of days ago! I cannot wait to get them in the mail! I hope you are staying warm and healthy!

  9. I recognise those Colorado skies too. The joys of Instagram and the lovely Linda! Your minnow poem is delightful. I’m still undecided about the spider; equal parts shiver and smile. (Being as I am familiar with the fanged hairy huntsman, which most definitely makes me quake!)

  10. Janice, your poems are delightful and congratulations for having them published. I checked out the Dirigible Balloon site an love that it is a dedicated place for children’s poems. Linda’s blue skies are probably powdered in gray as the storm comes our way. Enjoy winter.

  11. Congratulations on being published on the Dirigible Balloon website. Aren’t the postcards fun. I am mailing mine this week.

  12. Congrats, Janice, for getting your charming poems out there! (Dismayingly I am just not able to do a good job with the submissions at the moment.) Wishing you attention to all the small steps.

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