Shrouded Shore: The Many Musings of Thom Singleton

  Last Night’s Dream Fanciful get-together World travelers and family All in Robin Hood costumes One, surprisingly, reads poetry Elicits tears  The dreamer asks for a “please hold me” hug They say that dreamers have rapid eye movement This dreamer was winking at his wife!

Haiku - May 31, 2023 Doctor Meyer day Osteopathic treatment Puts spine back in place

  Haiku - May 30, 2023 Nitrogen-poor soil That’s what dandelions show We have so many

  Haiku - May 29, 2023 To lighten their load I like to elicit laughs I’ve found my mission

  Jodi and Michele’s Meatapalooza They’re making a meatapalooza For me, my wife, and all youza. You better come hungry, not eat for a week For this is a lalapalooza. They’ll roast it on the crematorium In their driveway, but it might fit better in an auditorium. They’ll cook and baste and roast and taste For my enjoyment and yourium. After experiencing a meatapalooza Everything else is simply a looza. For we will wine and dine and dine and dine  And not make a dent in the foodza.

  Haiku - May 28, 2023 Just a barbecue? It’s a meatapalooza Neighbors do it right!

  Bird and Man Alike An oriole pecks aggressively at his reflected image in the window, defending his territory - his nest nearby - against what he perceives as an interloper, really himself. As the sunlight changes, his image disappears. He thinks he’s won and flies away. In his current stage of evolution, is man any different? Man competes against man. Though he is unconscious of his own fear, or, more likely, won’t admit it, he sees himself in the mirror of his competitor, as he engenders fear in him, and gets defensive.  Some take it to the extreme…buy guns, make war. As man further evolves - hopefully in the not too distant future - and becomes enlightened, competition will fade, and cooperation rise. He will see a different image in the mirror of another…a man not to fear, but to understand. A man, if so needed, to help. Regarding Mr. Oriole, he has built his nest on a somewhat horizontal section of the downspout on the side of our house. Our house has become his house,...

  Haiku - May 27, 2023 Feeling rickety Vertebrae lubrication That is what I need

  A Season on the Wing The wings of birds on northward migration, Seen voyaging in the blue, on-high navigation, Delight us with their annual, aerial presentation. The wings of seeds flying down from the trees, Spreading their species in the warm spring breeze, Tell us that life abides, that new life proceeds. The wings of the spirit soaring on spring’s renewal, Flying beyond the confinement of cold winter’s rule, Beat the rhythm of life, spring’s ethereal jewel.

  Haiku - May 26, 2023 Woke up this morning  It is forty degrees now This is Wisconsin

  Haiku - May 25, 2023 I can hear today! Saw the audiologist No more hollering

  Haiku - May 24, 2023 No coffee today The automatic pot stopped Let’s see how I do

  Haiku - May 23, 2023 Daisy is a name The Old English is daeges eage The word means “day’s eye”

  Daisy      Per Wordsmith.org, “from Old English, daeges eage, day’s eye.” The daisy closes her eye at night. Is she fretful like a child who disappears the frightful night? Is she a flirtatious flower whose long wink is a come hither? Or just fatigued from shining with flourish all day? For sure, every morning her eye opens with the sun, Her awakened eye pleasing to everyone. 

  Haiku - May 22, 2023 Clunks in the window Oriole fights his image A mirrored skirmish

  Haiku - May 21, 2023 A beautiful day Church, river walk, meals with sons A new chapter starts

  Haiku - May 20, 2023 What are those wrinkles? Words of wisdom written there And smiles forever

  Haiku - May 19, 2023 What to be today? Whatever we do this day, Let’s be momentous!

  Haiku - May 18, 2023 Only fun today… It’s anniversary day Our forty-seventh

  My Coffee and Me In the early morning dark, so’s not to awaken Patti, I leave the lights off and zombie-walk to the kitchen. The Coffee Maker appears in my cloudy vision, a beacon of hope, and, at least, an eye opener, for me, the sleepwalker. In my foggy state, I attempt to remember if I prepared the Maker the night before. I open the lid. “I did,” I cry, as I flick the switch to get the java juices flowing,  turning mere H2O into Black Water A-Go-Go I feel my way in the dark for the living room recliner. Ahhh, I settle into its great, all-engulfing comfort, safe from toe stubbing, Then, in five, I arise, an upstanding man - sort of - and stumble, again zombie-like, into the kitchen, mumbling “coffee, coffee, coffee,” and pour a cup of black energy. The synapses start to fire. I’m awake! My friend Joe has saved me again.     

  Haiku - May 17, 2023 What is tomorrow? It’s our anniversary. Got to buy a gift!

  Haiku - May 16, 2023 Kayakers paddle Like waterwheels, churn the lake Chase the pelicans

  Our Debt  We stole their land. We took their world, their world which they nurtured for thousands of years. Native Americans lived with the land, not just on it. Theirs was a spiritual partnership with nature. For ages, they connected with and honored Earth, water, animals, and plants. When they took the life of plants, they did so with gratitude. For example, to fashion a sweetgrass basket, they would take only what was needed and ensured that it was sustained by planting more. If they took the life of  a deer, they thanked it first, for giving up its life to sustain their own. And, again, they took only what was needed. They knew how to live with nature. Europeans came here in just the last few hundred years. They took the land by warfare, broken treaties, the spreading of smallpox, forced relocation. The Native Americans have been decimated. And the land has been covered in asphalt and brick, animals - like buffalo - slaughtered to near extinction, air and water poll...

  Haiku - May 15, 2023 Today, a good sign It was a pollinator Mr. Bumblebee!

  Haiku - May 14, 2023 Hummingbirds do hum Not our imagination Wings beat, hum happens

  Haiku - May 13, 2023 Donald and Daisy Two ducks, they dine on bird seed Then swim in the pond

  Meadow in May Ample rain and warm sun spark an explosion of growth. Irises are in full bloom, maple leaves open, the woods green as can be. The lone blueberry, once thought dying, with care has made a comeback. Tiny balsams each year add a few millimeters of green growth, this year no different. Our No Mow May lawn - we call meadow - is aglow with a thousand dandelion suns, and tiny violets. And no herbicides make it a great graze for the deer and rabbits. It's a beautiful and healthful environment for our winged and furry neighbors.

  Mallard Melee Duck duel Daffy approaches Daisy Daisy waddles away quickly Donald appears, chases Daffy Donald and Daffy fight, snapping their bills Daisy hurries to the pond and jumps in Donald and Daffy do likewise, a battle at sea Donald’s bill comes down on Daffy’s tail feathers Daffy flies away, driven-off Donald and Daisy do likewise Daffy later returns to the feeder, chastised. Daffy can’t find love, but he can find food 

  Sharing the Land with Us Major species in our Fox Crossing home: two humans and a few ants. Major species in our yard and at the edge of the woods:      Mammals - fox, deer, raccoon, squirrels (red and gray), rabbit, woodchuck, chipmunk      Birds - turkey, mallard duck, wood duck, sandhill crane, rose-breasted grosbeak, northern                  oriole, hummingbird, redwing blackbird, cardinal, blue jay, grackle, crow, sparrow,                  house finch, downy woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, barred owl, flicker, wood thrush Our gratitude to them.

  Haiku - May 12, 2023 Gobbler struts again Stands with tail feathers displayed Hens ignore his moves

  Haiku - May 11, 2023 Tom Turkey displays To two young females pecking They just keep eating

  No Mow May Only May 10th and things are looking pretty long and dandeliony. But our lawn - we call it a meadow - has its advantages. For pollinators: tiny irises, dandelions, and clover blossoms. A big surprise this morning was a pair of sandhill cranes pecking in the grass. Next came our flock of turkeys and mallard ducks. And, of course, the deer who select - from our multicultural lawn - the plants their bodies need. We don’t have the perfect lawn, but we have nature. How ‘bout No Mow June, too. 

  Haiku - May 10, 2023 What’s behind the mists? There is mystery in clouds Especially fog

  Toxic Man We cover the Earth with buildings and asphalt, what’s left we pollute with toxics. We spread “forever toxins” on the crops we eat, land spoiled at the hands of agribusiness cliques. We produce many things that end up in Earth’s waters, things made of throwaway plastic. Microplastic is ingested by the fish we eat. Can you think of anything more drastic? We pollute the air, the air we breathe. Eventually this will make us all sick. Just because the air is mostly invisible, for man, this danger just doesn’t click. Climate is worsening, both huge storms and drought. No one will be left without hard licks. Earth always seeks a new balance, in answer to man’s toxic tricks.

  Mist of Morning Exhalations of water-smoke rise from the woods. Not a whisper of wind as time seems to stop. Breath of fog envelops newborn green, Shrouds the deep woods in ghostly gray. Slight movements there catch the eye, but can’t identify. Mists make the familiar mysterious. At least for a time, nothing is as it once was. But then, is it ever?

  Haiku - May 9, 2023 Her break is over She vanishes into dusk Duck returns to nest

  Backyard Breakfast Open the curtains and two turkeys there,  Male displaying in his best bib and tucker Female feigning disinterest. Later they reappeared, male no longer with his tail up like a fan - Must have convinced her. Cardinals kiss, male deposits birdseed in her beak. Mallard pair feeds below the birdfeeder, then swims in the pond. Another new arrival, the rose-breasted grosbeak, pecks some seed.  Stunning-orange oriole feeds at the jelly feeder. Blue jays bob up and down in the green, finding food. Rabbits nibble on our No Mow May lawn. Tiny chickadee eats one seed to a turkey’s thousand. I snap pictures, drink my coffee.  What a start to the day!

  Haiku - May 8, 2023 It is No Mow May Except for our near neighbors Our rabbits and deer

  Tanka: “Love” Tanka ia a traditional Japanese poetic form of five lines with this number of syllables: 5-7-5-7-7. What does this thing mean? Attraction and submission. Submission? A loss?      Not loss - gain - when one enters.      Enter the new, it’s called love.

  Daisy and Donald Two new tenants have appeared in our backyard residence, the Mallards, Daisy and Donald. Every day they waddle out of the woods, and head, first, to eat the birdseed fallen from the feeder, then to the pond. There they bathe and float and preen their feathers, much like the rest of us. We’ll see what happens when their ducklings hatch. Hopefully Daisy and Donald will introduce us to them, and continue to raise them here as they grow.

  Tanka: “An Opening”      Tanka is a traditional Japanese poetic form of five lines with the following number of syllables          per line: 5-7-5-7-7. To top-up the pot First drain the dregs, chuck the chaff, Rinse-out the rubble Leave the old, enter the new Now, since life does not tarry

  Haiku - May 7, 2023 Flag moves in slo mo Easterly breeze is blowing Only a little

  Spring is Springing The robin, bursting with eggs, rests in the maple, bursting with leaves. The mallard couple, male ever watchful, bathes in the backyard pond. A tom turkey in full display follows two hens in our yard. Rabbits chase their mates - looking to. The gray woods is greening, gray sky raining, temperatures climbing. Red-wings, blue jays, cardinals, finches, orioles sing nature’s glories. Spring, long awaited, is springing.

  Haiku - May 6, 2023 The greening forest Especially now, at dusk There’s mystery there

  My Views of the World Or, my view of the worlds For me, two worlds, two images, real or not For one eye sees one, the other, the other Both real, but both ghosts Separate, space between Looking down, without glasses, four feet, not two My eyes tell me there’s always another way of looking at things Do I understand you? Maybe not, but I see you as a human with views different from my own How else can I?

  Loving the World, Anyway Sure we have the self-important, power-mongering pseudo-leaders and their toadies of that world. We have the racists and sexists who think they can elevate their miserable selves only by putting others down. We have the damaged ones whose rage, they think, can only be released by bullets. The human traffickers who sell children into slavery. The dishonest newscasters who tell one lie after another for money and fame. The list goes on in this country. It’s, for sure, an immature country, only a couple hundred years and a few decades old. Its citizens include people who are emotionally ignorant, some unstable and dangerous. Hopefully these types get healed. However we also have a group to learn from, the Native Americans.  Indigenous to this land, they have been living here for thousands of years. What sets them apart? It is their wise oneness with the land and all of its beings. Their gratitude for the bounty of the natural world. Their support for ea...

  Haiku - May 5, 2023 A lone duck waddles Female, on break from the nest Paddles in the pond

  Haiku - May 4, 2023 Rain in the forecast Snow showers Monday, now rain Good weather for ducks

  Haiku - May 3, 2023 Skin, ears, eyes, teeth, back Saw all these doctors this year Now to get in shape

  Haiku - May 2, 2023 I am one Big Itch Dermatology today Yay, it’s skin doc day!

  Haiku - May 1, 2023 Window light is bright I slide open the curtain The first snow…of May!

  First Snow? A bright early light shines through the curtain. I push it aside and a scene of early winter appears. Green grass shows through a coat of white, While snow falls like a shawl over the land, A beautiful winter morning, but it’s not winter. It’s spring, the first of May! The weather report tells me, up North, a foot or two. In our locale, just an inch or two. Still, Old Man Winter this year is reluctant to leave. I think I’ll take his cue and stay myself. In bed, that is.