Streams and Birds, or the Simple Joys of the Summer

I discovered that I can wade in "my" stream. I share it with the whole community, of course. Someone built low rocky dams across the flow, and the water, still abundant after the spring rains, creates small pools, knee-deep at best, with sand, or gravel, or rocks on the bottom. The green algae and moss are gone, either torn away by rushing stream earlier on, or cleared away by those anonymous magicians that made this summer gifts for all of us.

There is a family with kids splashing and playing with a colorful plastic ball, the Mom or Big Sister floating by on a neon-green inflatable chair. Cheerful music is barely a distant whisper as I walk by the next mini-pool: deeper, with more soft sand. Here, a pudgy boy is learning to swim.  I wade downstream along a narrow "trickle" in my old shoes, protecting my skin from cuts - I learned this from an ancient Tibetan folk-tale about a wise princess, who thought that shoes could be thrown out, but wounded feet were hard to mend. After some narrow straits and thicker bushes, I come across the third rocky dam, barely one to two feet tall, yet it blocks enough water for a pleasant respite from summer heat. I see small fish darting this way and that around my feet, and sunlight ripples reflect on the sand.  Mountain sunflowers, or "black-eyed Susans" grow on the side.

Perfection of a moment. These wild pools will disappear when the stream will dry out. It was dry for so long, I stopped going there, did not want to see ugly rocks festooned with dry, yellow moss. Now the wash is alive with visitors - five horse-riders went by, three dog walkers, their charges greeting me by the stream. The "owners" of this place are here, too - I saw a rabbit with white spot of a tail hopping away from the trail, the bees are so abundant this year, the whole wash, covered with California buckwheat, round white flowerheads, is abuzz with the noise of their wings.

I love bees since my childhood. My grandma had an ancient, huge linden tree to shade her yard growing right in the middle, dividing it in half, between the part where the orchard and garden ended, and that where the barn and farm machines were. My uncle made a small wooden bench to sit under that tree. It was all humming, so loud, full of bees. The linden honey is very light in color, like clover, with a different scent. The buckwheat honey is darker, aromatic, like Baltic amber. So happy to hear so many bees in California too.

They are mostly wild mason bees near my garden. I know because I find their handicraft on my roses. It seems of all petals found in my garden, some types of roses have the softest, most pliable leaves that can be made into cocoons for bee babies. I saw quite a few cutting a semi-circular shape out of the leaf, from edge to edge, leaving a strangely maimed leaf behind. I used to be angry seeing that damage, but we should all get along. The bees pollinate my fruit trees, and have made sure to give me lots of  grapefruit last year and plenty of pomegranate for next fall. I can only say, thank you, and let them take what they need.

Peaceful coexistence is the key. I am happy to share my garden with birds too. The finches make nests under the roof's eaves, on the porch and the patio. This year, their efforts were rewarded with babies. Two years ago, crows found the full next and went into frenzy - at least four were attacking at once, fighting, while the finch-parents in a panic were fighting back. But that was then, and now I'm happy with being such a good host to these tenants, that pay me with their song.

Here's a brand-new poem, celebrating their presence with gratitude and delight.

The Song of the Summer

The house finches are back! The four little ones disappeared
on Friday. Their crowded nest under the porch roof
was full of wide-open yellow beaks crying out for breakfast.
Now, blades of grass are scattered on my front steps.
The nest is empty. They learned how to fly.

I was happy yet sad, a bittersweet moment.
My home was their home. Here they grew up undisturbed
in the safety behind switches for Christmas lights,
on top of a white wooden beam. Gone to their new adventures
like my children to Boston, Tucson, San Diego.

Look, my finches are back! They returned to the only
home they knew to practice flight from rooftop to rooftop,
porch to garage, to the end of the driveway, the Japanese pine
that all birds love to perch on, its branches stretching
like fingers to the sky – an open palm of a tree.

Listen, my finches are back! They study their song
at six in the morning. It is simple, repetitive, one phrase
spiraling down through fluted eddies of pure music,
measuring the hours of summer. The song never changes,
I used to think it boring – just a step up from
the monotone chirping of sparrows, and yet –

My finches are back and are learning to sing.
Note by note, motif by motif, they try out brief snatches
of their Dad’s tune and fail, and fail, and fail again.
I did not know it was so hard. The three notes on the top
ti-ti-ti – these are easy – then, the babies stop, all confused.

“Let me show you, how it’s done!”  The patient parent sings
again and again. Young birds repeat the fluid patterns
in shy, quiet voices, growing louder, more confident, true –
until descending swirls tumble at top speed, like droplets
in a mountain stream, rushing on, sparkling in sunlight.

The finches are back.

(c) 2020 by Maja Trochimczyk

A Mystery Solved
.
"Look, a goldfinch is eating a yellow rose. Oh, wait,
it is an Oriole." Quite fittingly named. The rose is Orogold.
Oro, d'or, aurum - the most precious treasure.
It is all about brightness - flashy feathers in warm,
sunny hues contrast with black wings, head, tail.

Golden blossoms flourish among vibrant, green leaves.
The Oriole wife, in camouflage, opts for a much more
mundane meal, picking ants and rolly-pollies off the lawn.
Striped with gray, she is used to living in his shade.

Look, another Oriole nibbles on a silver-red, two-tone
rose of love, by the pomegranate. What a scene!
Vivid colors outlined against white walls of the shed
at the end of a pathway lined with river rocks.

Pity, I cannot take a picture. I drowned my cell phone
in a mountain stream on Sunday. An accident waiting
to happen for 13 years, since I fell down a flight of stairs
and did not break my arms in five places as doctors
thought, X-raying me to smithereens.  Instead, I lost grip
in my fingers. I drop things when I do not pay attention.

"Take a picture with your eyes, Mom." My daughter
used to say. Enamored with a brand-new camera, I'd stop
at every blooming rose, slowing down the progress
of a family walk. My kids are gone now. I wade in streams
alone. I have all the time in the world to explore the geometry
of petals, from every angle documenting for posterity
the ephemeral gold and scarlet rainbow.

I've always wondered why my fully-opened roses
has such shredded edges, why they lost perfection so quickly.
I see it today. I take a picture with my eyes - as I sip the steaming
amber tea from a gold-white porcelain tea-cup and admire
an Oriole eating the Orogold rose for a fancy, fragrant breakfast.

(C) 2020 by Maja Trochimczyk

June in Blue and Gold - With a Taste of Loquat Fruit

  

June in Gold and Blue 


“It was June and the world smelled like roses. The sunshine 
was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”    
   ~ Maud Hart Lovelace


Hidden among stiff, broad, dark-green leaves, as if from 
an exotic isle, ripe bunches of loquat glow in afternoon sunrays
like “powdered gold” scattered on the slopes across the valley.

I am content to share a loquat, juice dripping down 
my chin, with a woodpecker that cut a groove in one side, 
tasting its tart sweetness. With a shrill call, the bird flies 
along a sine wave – rising, falling – too heavy for its wings. 

I thought it was a parrot, one of our Pasadena invaders,
relentlessly chased away by my resident finches and doves.
I was relieved to see a bright, scarlet spot on its head, 
black and white striped wings peeking beneath the branches.

“Hello, my dear. Welcome to my June Paradise. Please enjoy 
the fruit on the top. I cannot climb so high. Let’s share these 
life-giving delights.” The bird will not stay long. Its departure 
will leave a strange gash of absence, stretching shadows in its wake. 

Just like that dolphin, ten years ago, that joined our boat trip
to Catalina, jumping above the waves with such glee, we had to laugh. 
The dolphin laughed too, playfully teasing us with his ephemeral 
dance, contours outlined against the blue expanse of water and air.

Just like the striking, gold-furred grizzly bear, a mountain 
of primeval power, curling to sleep on my lawn. Misiek. 
My Protector. I’d swear I saw him once, at sunset. He came 
to my Oasis to rest, dream lucid dreams about me – 

– as I eat luscious loquats straight off the tree, listen 
to euphonious birdsong, gaze at the azure clarity 
of endless sky. Serene, I am here, where I belong. 
The taste of summer fruit. One June after another.

This poem to celebrate June, was written on a set of prompts created by Kathi Stafford for the Westside Women Writers group.  The prompt includes two quotations about the month of June, and a set of words to which synonyms were to be found and used in a poem. 

"Green was the silence, wet was the light,

the month of June trembled like a butterfly.”

 ~ Pablo Neruda

"It was June and the world smelled like roses. The sunshine 

was like powdered gold over the grassy hillside.”    

~ Maud Hart Lovelace

Please write down a synonym for each of the following words:

Dramatic - striking

Musical - melodious, mellifluous, euphonious 

Garden - paradise, oasis

Premonition - inkling

Quiet - serene, tranquil

Pleasure - delight

Ancient - primeval, olden

Scratch  - groove, gash, gouge

Please write a poem about the month of June incorporating most of your synonyms and your first reaction to the Neruda or Lovelace lines."

I do not have much experience in writing on prompt, partly because I do not like it, it seems like putting your mind in a cage of someone else's design, limiting the imagination. So after reading the prompt I decided to skip writing entirely. The next morning, as I had my tea on the patio I heard a new shrill bird call and looked for its source. It seemed foreign to my garden, maybe a parrot? It turned out to be a woodpecker that came to have some loquats! So I wrote about the encounter, using a paraphrase from the second poetry prompt and not worrying about the synonyms at all. I have not looked them up yet. 

Once the poem took shape, I went through the synonyms and replaced some of the words or descriptions with the terms found in my synonym search. I was quite pleased with the result, even though it was yet again on the same theme of being at home in my garden. I prefer to seek shelter in my garden in these trouble times. I share my garden with lots and lots of birds and I'm glad to see occasional visitors, like the woodpecker I saw today.  After emailing the poem, next day, I saw the woodpecker again. It was flying from the lemon tree to the loquat in a strange up-and-down pattern, that made me thought that it was too heavy for its wings. So I worked this line into the poem. 

Two other animals made their appearances too - a real dolphin, so playful, gleeful even - and an imaginary golden grizzly bear, Misiek my Protector. His corner of my garden is behind the pomegranate tree... It would be great to have such a "mountain of primeval power" to protect and defend me in my garden. I live alone, not even with a dog, my birds and roses as my pets. . . 

Why loquats, though?  To me, it is the ultimate exotic of fruit. I have never seen one or even heard about it while living in Poland and Canada. The first time I saw a loquat was when I went to explore my new garden in California in the spring of 1998! Apparently, it was fashionable in the 1940s and 1950s when this neighborhood was built.  In the early 2000s, we had lots of squirrels here, so there was no fruit left for us. Then the tree dried out and almost died in the drought. Stuck in a corner, it was easy to overlook. 

 Finally, after a rainy winter, the tree recovered, and is full of yellow fruit, that becomes darker, almost orange as it ripens, and has large shiny brown seeds inside. The juice is tart when the fruit is still greenish, but sweet and refreshing when the fruit is fully ripe. Alas, once you pick it, it quickly turns brown and rots. It just does not keep the way oranges or apples do. So the best solution is to eat it right away, right off the tree. . .