September 14: Class trip

Yesterday I helped lead a group of seventh graders on a nature hike in the Hodson Preserve in Camden, during which they were to record observations in a journal. What seemed to interest them: plants they could eat and the orderly lines of sap wells made by sapsuckers in birch bark. But mostly, as is natural, they were interested in each other.

 

Kids on a field trip.

I catch their interest

with Indian cucumber.

July 11: Haiku Workshop

Today I taught a day-long workshop on haiku at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. I was so grateful to have such a responsive group of students, open to paying attention, being creative, and sharing their poems. And we couldn't have asked for a better setting for a (partially) plein air class. The gardens are an endlessly inspiring landscape for the arts.

 

In the Five Senses Garden

 

A few of my in-the-moment jottings from our writing exercises out and about in the gardens:

 

(Five Senses Garden)

 

Stopping to touch

the black stone rabbit

warmed by sun.

 

Above the lily pond

black-and-white dragonflies

coordinate with her kimono.

 

Construction noise--

the dragonflies

go about their business.

 

(Children's Garden)

 

Rooted in mud

the yellow waterlily

seems to me perfect.

 

Junco visits our table

hoping for crumbs.

All I have are words.

 

Finding a small patch

of old-man's-whiskers

in the children's garden.

 

(Vayo Meditation Garden)

 

Purple love grass.

If only my life

could be so exciting.

 

Warbler still singing

in heat of the day.

Hay-scented ferns.

 

Alliums gone by

 

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August 4, 5, & 6: Baxter State Park

Spent three days in Baxter State Park, primarily at South Branch Pond Campground in the northeast corner of the park, so that I could lead a session on journaling and haiku for the ten cool kids in the Maine Youth Wilderness Leadership Program. As preparation for my session, I wrote a few myself to share so that they could see how they themselves might be inspired by the breathtaking natural surroundings. (And because I wanted them to focus on the concept of capturing a moment in a creative way, rather than the traditional syllabic structure, the following haiku do not follow the strict syllabic form as the other haiku I've written here do.)

In addition to (literally) soaking up the beauty of the pond, surrounding mountains, and lush woods of northern Maine, we hiked a six-mile trail following Howe Brook up a cleft of Traveler Mountain. This mossy, cobbled stream wends its way through water-carved pools and potholes, cascading over smooth ledges and down steep shelves--a perfect place for trailside swimming on a hot day. Frogs sang us to sleep, and the waning gibbous moon lit the trees outside our lean-to all night long.

South Branch Pond, looking south

Already August
and only now
my first swim of the summer.

Mountains embrace the pond--
wide, pebbled bowl,
tiny swimmers within.

These two fishing loons,
almost as loud
as the splashing swimmers.

Two loons surface near shore,
calmly ignore us all.
They own this pond.

Drumming across the pond,
a single woodpecker--
how loud!

A white noise machine,
wind drowns out
all human voices.

One of the many falls and pools of Howe Brook.