Poetry Thursday - My Back Deck

I just bought a retirement home in the mountains. Over the holiday we were there and I read Mary Oliver's poetry handbook and Ted Kooser's The Poetry Home Repair Manual. I stood on my back deck trying to write what I felt using imagery. I practiced metaphors, similes and made my title part of the poem. After fixing it way too many times, I recited it to my dog Manny and he loved it. This is not great, it's just growing :) Both books said reading poetry is a good teacher. I can't wait to read all I can.

My Back Deck

Lifts my body up into the pines
leaving material things behind.
The trees surround me, gently
parting to share the secret horizon.

The crisp breeze that blows the
pollen from the corners of the day.
Bring scents of campfires and pine
reminiscent of the happiest of times.

The clouds cast moving shadows
floating, slowly, wandering,
seeking to quench earths thirst.
The magic wand of mother nature.

The roar of the wind, soaring
through the trees, sound like the
ebb and flow of the ocean’s waves.
The music of the wind crescendoes.

The grape leaves wrap themselves
like a shawl, across the fence tops,
waiting for the sun to push through.
The waiting is over, I have come home.