Day 11 & April 2021

Today I look back a year and show you last April in twenty images for my Calendar series, and in the poem talk to a giant floating island of plastics, as one does.

Prompt 11: “Following up on yesterday’s love poem, I have for you another deceptively simple challenge. Today, I’d like to challenge you to write a poem about a very large thing.“

To one of them giant plastic islands

Who knows how many of you are out there,
and how big you really are.

I think they keep you out of sight, 
to spare us. Unknown floating objects.

I hear you are growing new life forms.
You are so advanced, aren’t you. So aware.

Don’t you think it’s a little bit like
when life decided to go on shore?

The ocean as a whole was unaware though.
Suddenly some... islands started to form.

Inhabitants started to do strange things
such as breathe. And crawl. And grow things.

Is life moving to the islands of plastic,
morphing into something else?

Plastic as the new chlorophyll, 
condicio sine qua non?

Lord knows that by the sound of them, 
some people are readier than others.

---

How about last April? In its first half, the pandemic was still on and we weren’t allowed to leave our municipality. A beautiful prison. When we could again, we forgot it was a holiday and the supermarket by the Orbetello lagoon was closed. We had to go for a walk, together! The only time it happened in the entire pandemic. This year we are still waiting for the holiday.

Yes, bestia, I know. The warmth is back.

Work in progress: to take a good photo of this hedge. One day I’ll nail it.

I remember this moment. I almost screamed: peopleeeee!

Weekend visitors put up this hoop and I thought it was forever. Alas, when they left, they took it with them.

Capalbio on the hill.

That time when I went to explore the southern border of our municipality.

Not a great photo, but the only one I have of the hoopoe in flight.

A couple of doves. Are those annoying dots in the background bokeh? Tomorrow I’ll post more of that.

Hi there. Don’t mind us, we’re just passing.

A poppy and a bunny.

A poppy selfie. Hard to see what you are clicking this way.

Lake Burano and the poppy carpet at the end of April.

Not what we want. But this one is controlled.

My daily view towards Monte Amiata on the right. The ambulance says “Florida Care”.

Another kind of carpet.

Dog rose, I assume.

Life goes on. So pretty.

Next to the closed supermarket on holiday.

We look like we have never seen a camera before. Or another human.

Frankly, I didn’t know any longer whether this was the sun or the moon. Or cared.

Previous months of 2021:

• January
• February
• March

April in previous years:

• 2016
• 2017
• 2018
• 2019
• 2020

The last day in my NaPoWriMo history

2018: Dressing the future

My future?
That’s an easy one.

I die.
We all die.

It’s so certain
that there’s no need for Future
or Future Perfect Tense.

I die.

First, the perfect present
continues
– “I have been living” –
and then
the future becomes perfectly tense.

Until it’s a wrap. (Read on.)

2019: Where I'm from

... or rational thoughts prevail:
“You moved to God’s behind.
There is nothing there.
The only part of Italy without highway.
You live in the middle of nowhere.”
Yes, I and flamingos, dad.  
We know what’s good for us.

So I arrived
and didn’t return.
It is as April now as it was then,
six years ago this Sunday.
I didn’t wear socks till November.

Read all.

2020: Quarantine flowers

Do you want to find the right rhyme,
and rank flowers fallen from grace?
Now is still a good time.

Jealousy, beauty sublime?
Symbols are not in a race,
and flowers are a good sign.

Compared to what waits in line,
quarantine is a good place,
now is still a good time
and flowers are a good sign. 

Read all.

2021: Dear Luka,

Tell me, how is it
in the land of make believe?
How do you cope?
How do you live?
Are you being made to pay
for what others did in history?
When you get hit, bitten, grabbed,
pinched, scratched, smacked, 
how often a call comes 
and how often none?

Read on.

This day in my blogging history

• 2014: In the time of your life, live—so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it. —William Saroyan

• 

  2014: The starting five: rosemary, thyme, marjoram, mint and sage. They didn’t last.

• 

  2014: How I stopped smoking in 2007. Still smoking – and liking it? Do not read this.

• 

  2014: The Garden of Edam and Ava

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