The Poet's Room

                  My mother's prints of the Four Seasons by Currier & Ives hangs now in our living room. For as long as I can remember the prints hung behind my mother's couch in the living room where I grew up.  After she died my father remarried. I removed the prints without seeking permission. They had been and are an important part of the landscape of my life which began in December.      Winter when all plant life has gone to seed; dormancy and hibernation seem to be dominant themes. The potential for rest, recuperation and a focus on the contemplative self becomes real.  A time to reflect on the past year of growth and development. To count things lost or let go of, and think on that which has been gained. A time to count the years on planet earth and wonder at this thing called Being; the consciousness of sentient being and how that can be expressed. One winter I received the gift of a song which expresses this Wonder as longing. Midwinter Dreams of You Snow falls so

           This year I saw only one Monarch at the conservancy where I walk daily. The conservancy includes a large planted prairie with very few Milkweed plants. Those Milkweeds grew near the paved path where the prevailing winds blow toward the houses and mowed lawns across the street. The following poem reflects my attempts to help the Milkweed plants spread there wings so to speak and increase next years crop.           Freeing The Fairy Seeds! As one season bleeds Into another, Green photosynthesis Dies to the light, Reveals a  Spectrum of Red, yellow,  Bronze and brown;         A night rain           Wets grounded earth,         As wind gusts shake       Loose leaves;      Today...      A good day      To just put      One foot      In front of       The other; Rut ready To begin, The boy's  Ancient man Flares nostrils, Inhales The fecund odor Of Autumn; Gravitas and melancholy Form counterpoint, A somber symphony, Beyond wish Or Desire;                            Monarchs, W

      Joy can surprise us with its simplicity. On July 7, I discovered that a female hummingbird had made her nest on a branch only a short distance from our three story deck. Only about three inches long how could I get a picture of such a petite neighbor? I mounted binoculars on a tripod with rubber bands then held my iPhone up to the lens and took a picture. To my surprise and delight it worked. To make getting photos and video easier I then order a frame that attached to the binoculars to hold the iPhone in place. I was off and running as an amateur wildlife photographer.     Ruby-Throated Hummingbirds are the only hummingbirds found in Wisconsin. Our tiny hummers live off sugar rich flower nectar and insects. Hummers as pollinators serve as they hum along moving from plant to plant sticking curved beak and tongue into flowers. The mother hummer after picking a mate by watching him show off his ruby throat and flying skills builds a nest from plant down like dandelion's fluffy

  Tree Frog on a Stick          Mother's Day in the year 2022. Three years of continuing Covid and little contact with family my daughter-in-law came to celebrate along with her two sons. The grandsons  didn't start out strapping. Like all of us they began small red and wrinkled. Fresh out of the womb they'd begun crying to know why they had to leave such a snug home. Now nineteen and sixteen years later they've grown into strapping lads -- brothers two.      After a nice late brunch so that my wife and her daughter can talk we boys exited out the door. Our normal thing to do. When the lads were even smaller we'd leave mom and daughter to talk in a restaurant and go outside. We'd find something like pine cones to throw back and forth in the restaurant parking lot.      This time  I lead the lads on a walk over to the nature conservancy nearby. As usual as we walked and talked these two brothers started teasing each other. The younger picked up a small branch and

   A  school picture of  Maite Rodriguez at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. An honor roll student who dreamed of becoming a Marine Biologist. A picture that probably graced the refrigerator of her mother and grand parents.        As the shock passes after these mass shootings the urgency to get common sense gun reform done tends to wane. Pressure needs to be kept on politicians to get anything done. Those owned by the gun lobby frequently stall and delay while pretending to care about the children of this country. Each of us does what they can. The following lament  is what I can do to keep this life and death issue alive in hopes that meaningful gun reform gets done. I have posted the recording on YouTube.      Eighteen other students and two teachers also died. The names and pictures of those beautiful children and teachers are available on line.  Each one had a family that loved them and that they loved. These tragedies will continue unless we get meaningful gun reform done in thi

On Memorial Day we take time to remember those who served and fought for We The People. Our service men and women who stand for us against tyranny. World War II veterans now a dwindling number fought against the Axis powers of Germany, Italy and Japan. The Civil War was fought to end slavery and maintain the country as the United States of America. Take a moment to consider those brave service men and women who willingly fought in those and other conflicts for us. They fought for a representative government. A form of Democracy that attempts to honor the citizens by respecting the Constitution and individual rights. Unfortunately we're now engaged in a different type of conflict. Nineteen grade school children slaughtered and two teachers in Uvalde,Texas bear witness with their bloody mutilated bodies to that ongoing violence. Ten black shoppers murdered just two days before that in Buffalo New York give testimony and witness with their blood. The list is long of those now sacrific

           Welcome to the Poet's Room, I'm Anthony Hendricks your host.  This painting titled "Passage" is my sister Judith's creation. The visual arts frequently stimulate a mixture of emotion and meaning that reach deep places in our psyche beyond logic and reason. They can touch the very core of our being. The place where mythology resides. The beginning of the story; how we rose from crude chemistry and matter into conscious life.           As human beings our consciousness demands that we express ourselves. We seek meaning and a means to express what we discover. The visual arts, music, song, dance, poetry and story telling go beyond simple entertainment and always have. The cave artists in Europe were not interested in just pretty pictures. Their paintings and pictographs expressed a developing consciousness of the world they knew and thought about 35,000 years ago.           Thirty-five thousand years seems to us who are short lived a long, long, very long