The Apples in My Orchard

It’s been a busy week. I missed Poetry Friday last week because I traveled to the Twin Cities to go wedding dress shopping with my youngest son’s fiancée and her mom. She had two appointments on Saturday, and the first was early enough that I didn’t want to leave home at 5:30 a.m. to be there on time.

While she didn’t say “yes” to any of the dresses, she looked beautiful in all of them. She thinks she’ll probably go back to the first shop and order the dress that was her favorite there.

It was exciting to be included in this outing. With three sons, I haven’t had any of these mother-daughter experiences as of yet. We made a weekend out of it, eating out Friday night, and Saturday for a girls’ lunch, and dinner with the happy couple on Saturday. I headed home Sunday on a very warm September day after treating myself to coffee and a pastry.

Sunday night, I saw there was a chance to see the Northern Lights at an earlier hour than usual, so I crept down to our dock to see what I could see. While the sky only looked “lighter” in parts to my naked eye, my cell phone camera easily picked up the colors.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Monday came, and I got some disappointing news. None of the four poems I submitted to Rattle was accepted for publication. I am tired of trying. I think I’ll stop submitting for a while. After all, I write and publish on one of two blogs per day and wrote a textbook chapter this summer. I have many hobbies and am successful at most, so not being selected for publication, while disappointing, is not the end of the world. After all, publishing is a subjective field.

This is a major reason I have independently published two books.

Speaking of books, SCBWI is running a Book advertising feature, which I am going to take advantage of for Picture Perfect Poetry, which came out in April 2024. Visit your local SCBWI page for more information. I am planning to make a short video in which I explain the book, describe the intended audience, and read a few of the poems included.

I will reach out to a few of my Poetry Friday friends who took a chance on me as a publisher to see if I can be allowed to read their poems in the video. Some of you should keep an eye out in your email inbox for a brief note from me regarding this matter. Of course, you can always decline and opt out if I ask. I just wanted to give a brief heads-up to those who this might impact.

I spent some time yesterday looking into revamping this blog and am getting close to choosing a page template for that. I also added a page enabling the purchase of my photographic note cards, which you can access from the top menu. It’s not exactly how I want it to look, but for now it will do.

The art fairs my husband and I have gone to this summer have given me a good idea of what to price these blank cards. They do make nice gifts when given in a grouping.

Lastly, the seasons are changing here in the Northwoods. Yesterday, we had three monarch butterflies and one Red Admiral hanging out on my Joe Pye Weed. Today, our yard is covered with leaves. We took a lunchtime walk in the woods and saw all kinds of fungi popping up with recent rain. And yesterday, although I thought they were gone, I heard the call of the Sandhill Cranes.

Two weeks ago, I wrote a poem about these birds after I thought they had gone for the season. I’ll share that today. I like to think of it as a poem of hope.

Field Crane

I missed my chance to
Photograph you,
Ye of long legs and neck.
The weather has turned and
Sent you on your way to
Warmer lands, I suppose
Even if it hadn’t, the farmer cut the field
And harvested what fed you, long grains
Protecting you while you ate
Many a day, I’d see you
Head bent down, nibbling
Away with a friend or two, or more
Until you heard me pass,
In a whoosh of air from the road.
Then, you’d stand and look.
Long legs and neck,
Gracefully, you stood, Sandhill Crane.
There’s always next year.

© Draft, Carol Labuzzetta
September 5, 2025

This week’s Poetry Friday host is Jama, with her continuing posts about the alphabet. Thanks for hosting, Jama. You can (and should) visit her blog here.