Slice of Life/SmallPoems Day 17 (fingerpainting birds)

(I am participating in the March Slice of Life challenge via the Two Writing Teachers site.  Slice of Life is the idea of noticing the small moments. I have been a participant for many years and each year, I wonder if I will have the energy to write every day. This year, I am going to try to coincide it with my daily poetry writing, and intend to compose small poems on small moments. We’ll see how it goes …)

Day Seventeen

Such gray days;
such drained away
days, these melancholy
days of worry and want
in a world of need

but for the sudden presence of
the darting red cardinal
and the skirting yellow goldfinch,
fluttering both among
the branches of Evergreen

like fingerpaints splattered
upon a winter canvas
we’ve already somehow
forgotten existed;

this moment lingers
longer than most

Peace (still flittering),
Kevin

9 Comments
  1. This is beautiful and caused me to linger a bit longer this morning. Rereading your words, creating an image in my mind, sipping my coffee and appreciating the moment I am in right now. Thank you.

  2. I am heading outside today, no matter the weather, just to find some splashes of color in these gray days. I may just add some to a canvas, too. Thanks for the inspiration to pay attention to details during these gray days.

  3. Kevin, your poem reminds me to look up and look out. There are trees outside all of our windows where spring is beginning to take the stage. These days of being indoors looking out give us some fresh opportunities to notice that canvas “we’ve already somehow
    forgotten existed”
    Your words give me pause.

  4. Kevin, thank you for painting a picture of the beauty that surrounds us – “somehow forgotten” but always there, if we open our hearts to see.

  5. What a beautiful poem. On this gray day I needed the reminder that there are splashes of color – they are harder to find, but are there nevertheless.

  6. Beautiful poem! Your coordination of daily poems with The Slice of Life Challenge has inspired me to consider writing more poems myself. Keep ‘em coming! I’ve been keeping my feeder filled religiously hoping to swap anxious thoughts with more upbeat ones when the birds gather around. Tonight we watched four cardinals joyfully darting about…and then the evening news came on.

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