Poetry Friday: Summer Garden Swap

It's Poetry Friday.I've been away from my desk for several weeks because of a death in our family. The global pandemic has affected how we grieve, because it affects how we gather ... or don't. It has been difficult to say goodbye without friends and family around.Our family is finding solace in our new garden. We moved to this house in the fall, so beginning in early spring there have been backyard discoveries every week!Though I live in Maryland and my summer poetry swap partner Margaret Simon lives in Louisiana, we share the joy of being outside and being surprised.Margaret sent me a lovely hand-made book, with two original poems inside for inspiration.Garden VisitorBy Margaret SimonTiptoe turtle seeksShade from seering summer sunLaura says, "Come in."Did Margaret know we have two resident box turtles living in our yard?Margaret's second poem is the coolest! A zentangle black-out poem created on a  page from "A Legacy of Shadows" by David Lee.A Summer GardenBy Margaret SimonHere's tothe placebetweenthat placeunder the treesunder the shadowwhere all the wordsslide into quietsleepingbetweenthat placewhere thosewhoknow without rememberingno differencenone at allAnd here is our beagle, Rudy, enjoying that between place under the trees, under the shadow.Margaret's garden poems worked their magic! I took an old newspaper article about trees and climate change and used it to create my own black-out poem.Black-out PoemBy Laura ShovanClimate change growingAdapt to complex airThreatened yearsTrees declineLookForests fallSpecial thanks to Tabatha Yeatts, who runs the poem swap, which is always full of surprises and connections.