Winter blues brighten
Hooded mergansers return
Carolina shores
Hooded Mergansers
Virtual Reality
Lifting me to new heights
Revealing unexpected sights
Filling me with pure delight
A nice substitute
A family member recently gifted me his unused virtual reality headset. I have been using it mostly for virtual travel and immersion into 3D animated stories. The featured photo was taken from inside my headset while virtually traveling in Cappadocia, Turkey (Brink Traveler). There are also many free 360 degree videos on YouTube. I especially enjoyed kayaking in Africa with National Geographic. It has been a nice substitute for getting out in nature during an unusually cold winter.
Given that I publish interactive children’s books on my Home Page, 3D animated stories are of particular interest. I have downloaded the free and open source Blender software to attempt my own 3D animation. I have managed thus far to create a 3D model of a head. Perhaps one day I will feature my own 3D animated interactive book!
It
I watch it dance in the periphery
Intent on infiltrating my persona
Its probing fingers skirt the margins
Tentatively gauging my receptiveness
Why do I reject it?
Block it with irrational fear
Smother it with useless worries
It is not easily deterred
A frequent guest at the metaphorical door
Patiently chipping away the armor
As it liberates tiny shafts of illumination
dVerse Poetics hosted by Dora
W3 Prompt #142: Wea’ve Written Weekly poet of the week, Sarah, prompts us to “[w]rite a poem of up to 12 lines on the theme of hope or renewal.”
On a Bench of Stone
Contemplation on a bench of stone
This gentle flowing river
Once roared through rock
Carving swirls in sandstone
Deepening the valley
Oh, moments of rage it has still
Angry waters rush and rise
Thunderous crashes echo
The landscape ever changing
Temperamental river now calm and satisfied
Graciously permits a rest at its bank
Xingfumama’s Pull up a Seat Photo Challenge, Week 1, 2025
Jude’s Bench Challenge
A Tanka: Heart at Home
Another road trip
Perhaps designed to escape
Bittersweet solace
Time and space for reflection
To find my heart remains home
W3 Prompt #141: Wea’ve Written Weekly poet of the week, Suzanne, prompts us to write a Japanese poetic form on the theme of Yutori.
Calico Bird
I am aware that my back
Is painted in patterns abstract
Calico colors in fact
Adorned by quite the artist
dVerse Poetics Art in Nature hosted by Melissa
Ronovan’s Ovi Poetry Challenge 82: AWARE
Beyond the Dunes
Along the beach beyond the dunes
A perfect little holly blooms
It’s round red berries oh so bright
Complements the pale sunlight
How does it stand there so?
No concern for the tidal flow
The ocean breezes kept at bay
For the little holly does not sway
Certainly it would be in runes
If not for the great sand dunes
Beyond the dunes have tempests reached
Tormenting trees beside the beach
Their windblown heads turned from shore
Shaped that way forever more
Remains of the unlucky few
Lay upon the sand astrew
Headless trunks sit in memorial
Of the fallen arboreal
Over time to be enlightened
By lovely tufts of silvery lichen
Along a trail off the sandy shore
I walk a place I’ve been before
The coastal marsh with its ebb and flow
And the oyster beds that live below
Herons fishing from muddy banks
Observed from wooden boardwalk planks
An ecosystem pure and clean
A joy to find it still pristine
A gorgeous sunny afternoon
For a stroll beyond the great sand dunes
W3 Prompt #140: Wea’ve Written Weekly poet of the week, Heather, prompts us to “write an ode in praise of a person, place or thing.”
Plovers
Scampering through the quagmire
On deft little feet
Catch us if you can
I. J.’s Birds of the Week Invitation XCVII
RDP Friday! Quagmire! hosted by Martha
Kindred Spirits
In an unexpected place I rest
Awaiting a kindred spirit
I know you are on the path
You don’t see me at first
My face registers
Your face brightens
We connect
Two deer
Bound
A classic Nonet for Colleen’s TankaTuesday Poetry Challenge: Native American Zodiac
Water Hyacinth
In fields of flowers
She dances among the blooms
Outshining the sun
For Cee’s final Flower of the Day Challenge (FOTD)
JJJ Interactive Books 