nature – panache, perhaps

Poem written at dusk, written right this minute (mine).

Published on 09/16/2013 by taylor mardis katz2 Comments

I am making plum jam and it smells divine

because of that vanilla bean steeping in it

grown by an orchid in another county’s humidity

Misha is outside snipping grapes off the vine

to bring to his parents

because we can’t make all the jam

It’s sunny now after a day of bluster and greys

and there’s a catbird screeching near the chickens

and the rooster’s screeching back at her

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been injured

because it would sound unimpressive

and I like to impress people with quantities

Multiplication has never come easy to me

not even after years of memorization

I wish numbers were something I could intuit like moods

Being an adult means being able to eat an entire box of macaroni & cheese

And I can do that

But only every once and a while

Perhaps I’m still not quite fully grown

That would be really great news for me

Because I check my upper back daily for wings

On the day when I finally grow my wings

I will act as nonchalant as a teenager

And fly away for a daytrip but return home at dusk

Because dusk is the best part about autumn

And the best part about summer too

And the best part about right this minute

So I’m off to enjoy this current set of minutes

Because as you know they are already flying away from me

At a pace that not even the wingful can achieve

A day in the life of someone else’s farm (photos).

Published on 08/19/2013 by taylor mardis katz1 Comment

In which I spend time with superb ladies, learn about “nature names,” drink beer for dinner, watch the last nub of sun hit a land I may someday live on, stare into the red red eyes of a rabbit, play with chicks with good hairstyles, sleep three to a bed, wake up just past dawn to milk a cow and a goat for the first time, drink muchly-creamed coffee, eat purple potatoes for every meal, meet three stout sheep…and enjoy myself outrageously.

(All photos taken by me at Kate & Nick’s beautifulheavenlyanimalfilled farm.)

“The Robin World Series” (poem) (mine).

Published on 07/17/2013 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

The Robin World Series

What if this evening on the porch

I witnessed the Robin World Series

in which all Robins in the world

surrounding my home split into two teams

with mascots named after berries and seeds

and played each other in order to win

not only the bushiest and best-hidden nest

but also a cup crafted from the cap

of an acorn brimming with nectar

collected by hummingbirds?

And what if in the ninth inning

the Robins boycotted the whole event

because it had gotten too long and too late

and their children were starving at home?

Poem of today (poem with friends in it) (mine).

Published on 06/24/2013 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

Double Double

Today a couple of honeymooners came over

to sit on the porch for hours and eat

lunch and coffee cake. The clouds cleared

for them and the frogs burped their hellos

and later poems will be written

with scythes in them and we will all approve

or not. After they left I stirred honey

into my tea (like always) and hoped

the clouds would clear again for them later

so that the moon could shine on their sweet

little cabin as they read their magazines

and sipped their tea. My honey and I

sat on the porch after they drove away,

in different chairs, reading our books

as storms rolled over, the scythed-down

grass flattening against the rest, birds flitting

back to nests. To be honest I can’t tell

a bird’s nest from a bat box but I am

gosh-darned over-the-moon about

homes in general, about porches and the moon

and frogs that celebrate a thunderstorm.

Oh, the sideyard of San Diego!

Published on 03/18/2013 by taylor mardis katzLeave a comment

Something that I miss about San Diego is the sideyard, that yard we had on the side of our house, where friends used to gather. So many great things happened there: poems under the streetlights, loud live music, deluxe beverages (alcoholic and non-alcoholic), yoga mat washing by way of rare rain, hot pepper roasting (& peeling), yoga class by Britta, yard sales, the explorations of a young chicken named V’Nilla… That being said, we also experienced chair thievery with frequency. And people used to walk their dogs onto the lawn and let them shit and just leave it. Hummingbirds buzzed through there and friends visiting from the east came and sat in the sideyard with their faces facing the sun and said, “Aaaah.” People purchased Misha’s photos there and we parked our bikes there and we grilled fish out there and we sat with tea out there under the purple umbrella that Misha bought because he knows how much I love purple. We grew good mint out there and a kale plant that looked like a palm tree and a bush of African blue basil that the bees adored. And before we left, we invited everyone over to buy and take our stuff, and we made fancy popcorns, and we played bocci, and drank beer and lemonade from a cooler. It was our living room, carpeted with the spikiest grass I’d ever known, and Misha would turn off the sprinklers and then every week dudes would come and mow the grass and turn the sprinklers back on. And now that we’re not living there anymore I hope heartily that whoever is living there is loving that little square of green as much as we did, is using it as hard as we used it, and is calling it a sideyard.

(The sideyard was also where I discovered I could wear bocce balls as earrings, no big deal, just wearing these bocce balls as earrings next to my boyfriend. I’m assuming we lost that game of bocce based on the look on Misha’s face.) (Photo by Marilyn, a true friend who I met–you guessed it!–in the sideyard.)