Orchid
I cannot grow you
and perhaps I can’t paint you
but oh, I shall try!
Watercolor Haiku: Orchids
Watercolor Haiku: Sea Holly
I leave my island home today where I grew up, headed back to my home in middle Georgia. I chose the sea holly watercolor I painted back in April to share today. I was blessed to grow up on an island that so many love to visit for vacation and bask in the sunshine and relaxed pace of its beaches and massive oaks. These are all part of my roots, and I’ll never forget the days I spent here. But my roots have extended, and it’s time to release this place, keeping the strength and love I came to know here. And so the Sea Holly captures the essence of this day.
Goodbye, St. Simons Island, Georgia ~ the house is cleaned, ready like a hermit crab’s shell to house another family that will fit inside this place that will protect it from storms and dangers. I pray blessings over its future, that just the right buyer will come along and take up residence here.
Leaving the Island
Sea Holly blossoms ~
drought-tolerant, sun-loving
like most strong women
Watercolor Haiku: Thistle
Today and tomorrow, I’ll be working in my late parents’ house – replacing toilet seats and ceiling fans, scrubbing hard water stains out of toilet bowls, and hauling the last things off to the dump. I bristle at some of the memories in that house, when what I need to do is thistle at them. So I’m changing my mindset from bristling to thistling…..and I may even whistle while I thistle.
It’s all part of the grief process I’ve been in for the past year with the way Dad chose to live his remaining years, still holding tight to everything he ever owned, despite our repeated requests to help him divest himself of all that was in those seven storage rooms and crammed into his house. He never considered the mess he was leaving for his children – a newlywed son who has had more to do than to want to clean up a lifetime of someone else’s memories, and me – a daughter who lives five hours north and works full time. Ah, but I digress and bristle…..let me thistle instead.
The Symbolism of Thistle
bravery and strength~
I need to thistle myself
for the coming hours
Watercolor Haiku: Hummingbird
Somewhere in a box tucked in a recessed corner of the things I saved that I have not yet dealt with, one of Mom’s hummingbird ornaments rests in a padded wad of tissue paper, its tag still attached to the hanging string. She always loved birds – especially hawks and hummingbirds – which are as different as she and Dad were, this odd combination of meek and majestic. And just as oddly, she was the majestic one. She was the hummingbird.
Today, we head south to get the remaining things out of the house so that it can go on the market. And while I’m there, I’ll be watching for hummingbirds and hawks. They tend to appear now and then at the least expected times.
Hummingbird
you : Mom’s favorite
she watched you hover, dart, sip
here, then gone – just like her…
Watercolor Haiku: Sunflower
Today’s watercolor took me back to the early 1990s when my bedspread, curtains, and wall art in my bedroom were all splattered with splendid sunflowers – big ones, with a blue sky background that made me feel like I woke up in a Van Gogh painting every single morning. I can’t wait to have more time to paint; each of these paintings I’m sharing in May were created over Spring Break the first week of April, and even though I’m in a watercolor class now, I haven’t been able to attend in person because of…..well, the month of May…..as an educator. Days and nights both are slammed with commitment, and retirement keeps calling my name a little more loudly each time. Because I really have some petals, leaves, and stems I need to work on.
Sunflowers
you graced my bedroom
patterned paintings and curtains
a king-sized bright theme
Sally Donnelly’s Book Club and Watercolor Haiku Weekends: Potted Cactus
I’m already dreaming of a summer of reading and all the books on my TBR list – – and I will begin with a collection of poetry. Sally Donnelly, a long-time writing buddy from Two Writing Teachers whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting on more than one occasion in person at the National Council of Teachers of English Convention, is hosting a Summer Reading Club. You can check out her invitation to participate and her directions to her Padlet here, introducing her selections Dictionary for a Better World by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, and 44 Poems on Being with Each Other, an anthology curated by Padraig O’Tuama. I have had the opportunity of deeply engaging in Dictionary for a Better World a few years ago, so on Wednesday of last week while I was in Atlanta on a personal day to see the musical Six, I treated myself to the guilty pleasure of leisurely browsing a bookstore, where I picked up a copy of 44 Poems on Being With Each Other.
Yesterday, Wildflower Watercolor Week started, and I’m taking a class online to learn more about watercolor techniques. After March bloggers at Slice of Life shared their love of Emily Lex watercolor books when Leigh Anne Eck asked what everyone would bring to a party where technology was not allowed, it brought back memories of strolling through Woodstock, Vermont and seeing one of those themed watercolor books after NCTE was held in Boston a couple of years ago. Slicers resurrected that memory with their love of watercolor books. I picked up an off-brand at Hobby Lobby and shared a couple of my paintings with Glenda Funk, who then found a watercolor class on Facebook and encouraged me to sign up. So I did, and I look forward to learning new techniques from a real person, not a step-by-step book. On weekends throughout March, (and today) as we travel here and there, I’ll be painting and sharing Haiku Watercolors – the semi-good, the bad, and the ugly.
Here’s one of my daughters’ favorites, along with a haiku that mentions one of my favorite poetry collections I’ve read lately: Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan.
Cactus Coddiwomple
I read about you ~
Instructions for Traveling
West ~ Take me with you!
Watercolor Haiku: Monstera
Throughout March, I had blogging friends in the Slice of Life Challenge who shared their love of the Emily Lex watercolor books that take you step by step through watercolor painting techniques. I found some off-brands in Hobby Lobby and picked up a book on Spring Break during a camping trip. It was so relaxing and stress-relieving for me! I am planning to make Haiku Watercolor Weekends happen in May as a tribute to Matsuo Basho, whose most well-known haiku poem is on my blog logo this month. I like setting up a table at a campsite and enjoying the sounds of nature as I paint and write. My friend Glenda Funk of Idaho signed up for a Watercolor Week class on Facebook, and I may do the same since it is ten dollars for the week and they offer the recordings of the live sessions since I’ll be working during those times.
Today, I’ll be on my first outing in the new motorhome, The Next Chapter, at Indian Springs State Park. We traded in the InTech for something I could drive, and I picked it up last Saturday. The retirement dreams are becoming actual plans – but first, I am using the last three months before retirement traveling locally to learn how everything works with setup and driving. I didn’t want to have to tow anything, so I won’t have to hook it up to the hitch, and all I have to do is mash a button for the self-leveling feature. It drives a lot like a large SUV, and because it has a great backup camera, I can back into campsites with fewer challenges. I may even find some time this weekend for painting – – but meanwhile, here is one of the very first attempts I made in April. It’s a Monstera plant, and the holes remind me of monster eyes.
Monstera Eyes
I see right through you ~
or are you looking at me?
those eyes have questions
VerseLove Day 30: Closing Invitation
The final prompt for VerseLove 2026 yesterday was a touching invitation to write, sharing what our writing space has meant this month.
Sarah Donovan has a way of weaving community together like a cherished tapestry so that each voice and thought has a place, each poet shines. And I am in awe – of her, of her poetry, of every voice in my writing community that sustains me and brings joy to all my broken places. I can’t yet write or think or feel since Wednesday afternoon, when I had to hold my beloved Fitz for his last breath and release him…..but even without that little nose nudging me awake and those sweet little eyes staring into mine with full love, I’m better for having been Fitz’s person for the time we had him.
Celebrating Through The Tears: A Tribute to Poets in Community
my fingers won’t write
but one thing I know: poets
write hope in the grief
my heart won’t yet beat
but this I know: poets find
pulse in lifelessness
my breath won’t calm down
but what I know: poet friends
reach in, hold hands, sit
my eyes can’t see straight
but I know this: poet friends
jump in the tear poolÂ
my soul has a hole
and this I know: poet friends
share theirs to fill mine
VerseLove Day 29: Making the Invisible Visible
Barb Edler of Iowa and Glenda Funk of Idaho were our hosts yesterday for VerseLove. They brought us a thought provoking prompt (and the amazing Kate Baer as an inspirational poem) to start our midweek morning, thinking of all the ways we can make manifest the unseen in our world and lives, often in relationships and actions others can’t see – or refuse to see. I saw a musical last night – Six – that had me thanking writers who can raise voice and tell stories even ages after the living.Â
Six – History or Herstory?
onto The Fox stage
Six voices raised: herstory
(why we need no kings)
VerseLove Day 28: Instructions
Our host, Jessica, lives in Chicago, Illinois where she teaches English. She is currently a teacher-consultant with the Chicago Area Writing Project.
Jessica offers these words of inspiration: “This winter, I was fortunate to see the Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. ” She was inspired by the lyrics of Grapefruit, in which a poem takes the form of instructions. Today, she inspires us to write poems on how to do something. You can read her full prompt here.
Lately, I’ve returned to the interlibrary loan system I used when I was in college to get books I want to read in my rural county in middle Georgia. I log in to my account, search the shelves across all the state libraries, and place holds on the ones I want in hard copy with my Pines System Library card. One simple click brings them across the miles to me – for free – where I pick them up and return them right across the street when I’m finished. It’s a frugal way to read anytime, but especially with retirement and a more limited budget as the next chapter. Also, our library offers free state park and zoo passes and theater tickets. If I want to listen, I can log in to Libby and get audiobooks too. This is the way to live, laugh, and read.
How To Enter The Next Chapter
get a library
card ~ reserve your books online
check out locally
Common Threads 