Poetry Corner: On the Porch

POETRY CORNER

Photographer Robyn Corum says:
“I spent many happy childhood hours playing on a country porch.”

– 5/16/18

Hosted by Kathabela Wilson

With leisure and a special view we find ourselves “On the Porch”! Our first poet, Terri Hale French, in Alabama, suggested this theme and I quickly realized how inspiring, intriguing, and various this experience could be. All the porches of your life immediately come to mind and the fascination continues with memories, friends, family, childhood playmates and the very porch you have now. We find ourselves here, in the Southern US, with its special accents and predispositions, immersed with sweetness, anxieties, and unexpected ways of solving problems, even those that might seem non-existent. As a finale, Sandi Pray finds a hermetic refuge, an inner view from her porch, to inspire and uplift us.

~ Kathabela​​

Porch photo by Peggy Hale Bilbro.

Terri Hale French

When I lived in Michigan, our “porch” was more or less just cement steps, but, when I moved to the south, I realized it was a very important extension of the house. Back before air-conditioning, the porch was where the family gathered, often with neighbors—rocking, swinging, whittling, playing music or a game of checkers, drinking lemonade or sweet tea. In many rural areas you’ll still see furniture and sometimes even a refrigerator out on the porch. Much like the fireplace hearth in winter, the front porch in spring and summer, is still the heart of the home.

asleep on the porch
the dog’s paws paddle
through a dream

early retirement
daddy whittles away
at his worries

not enough sugar
in the lemonade—
front porch gossip

haint that a shame

Granny’s porch was painted what she called “haint blue” on account of the house was built on top of an Indian burial ground and she didn’t want some “pissed off spirit of an injun savage” barging in the front door and scalping her in the middle of the night. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that they could just come through the back door.

furrowed field
arrowhead hunting
after the rain

The history of haint blue is said to come from the Gullah/Geechee people, a community with ties to the enslaved Africans from the sea islands off South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. According to the Gullah/Geeche culture, this shade of blue represents water, which spirits can not pass over.

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Peggy Hale Bilbro

After growing up in the West, Peggy Bilbro finds herself living in Alabama. The cultural and climatic contrasts between these two geographic areas provide her with an unending supply of inspiration. Nowadays, she spends many hours on her front porch watching the soft southern seasons roll by and remembering the crisp mountain air of her western childhood.

sage brush
and high mountain piñon
aromas linger as
worn boots line the porch
the scent of memory

The Between Place

Front porch…. a transition between the world and our retreat. We sip from our wine glasses; wave at passing neighbors; absorb cool evening air; mourn with doves the end of another day; hear the wind chimes gently calling darkness down.

balanced
between day and night
we leave
the porch light off
stopping time

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Photo – Peggy Hale Bilbro.

Michael Henry Lee

The front porch conjures up an image and time of more congenial discourse, when relaxation and dialogue were the norm. Sitting in the moment, alone, or with friends and family. My only real memories of that kind of grand wooden sanctuary was of my maternal grandmothers in Polo Missouri, population 99. Alas the nearest my current experience affords is a lovely sun room in St. Augustine, Florida.

autumn light
the sun settles down
on our front porch swing

old rockers
still going strong
with th​​e wind

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Mary Kendall

This certainly brought back a lot of early memories, especially of teenage years. We lived in an old house with a front porch that had one of those old metal gliders. I remember my girlfriends and I would spend hours on summer evenings in the dark listening to the radio and gossiping and sharing our thoughts.​ ​Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures of those old porches. We do have a front porch here in Chapel Hill, NC with Adirondack chairs and a large back screened in porch facing our woodland garden​.

summers spent
shaded on the verandah
reading book
after book, searching
for a life

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darkness
came much earlier
in the fall, along
with a first kiss —
porch swing

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summer nights
spent on the front porch
flashes of fireflies
and all our lives
ready to happen

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Write something – haiga by Sandi Pray.

Sandi Pray

If I can’t be hiking in the mountains of North Carolina or along the river marshes of North Florida…I commune with them from my porch. I need to be outside, no matter the season. And I am blessed to have a porch in each world​.​

chores undone
an old rocker creaks
across the porch
as afternoon sunlight
closes my eyes

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Haiga by Sandi Pray

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A haiga by Sandi Pray.

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on the porch

the old cat and i
drinking wine

between ravens
as mountains rise
into distant rain

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♣ We welcome and encourage your response especially in the form of short poems. You may reply by leaving a comment below.