Florida Haiku and Short Verse

Florida Nature Fun Poetry - Haiku for Thursday, Feathers, Wind and a Seagull Florida Haiku, Feather, Wind and Seagull by Kevin Songer ... stout wind today pull feather from the sand and out pops a seagull ...

Florida Wildflower Haiku & Art, Lyre Leaf Sage, Salvia lyrata Florida Wildflower Haiku & Art, Lyre Leaf Sage, Salvia lyrata by Kevin Songer ... native purple blooms hummingbirds steal a sip and chase off butterflies … Lyre-leaf sage is a Florida native and drought tolerant wildflower I see growing across lawns, along roadsides, in fields, meadows and under the forest canopy. Lyre-leaf sage leaves are lyre-like in shape with deep purple and green colorings. Their light blue flowers provide nectar for hummers and butterflies. The over-lapping leaves of adjacent lyre leaf sage plants keep other weeds down and provide a neat, well-cropped perennial native ground cover appearance. Lyre leaf sage has been one of my favorite and most reliable green roof plants. Lyre leaf sage has also been used traditionally as a cancer cure. This healing practice was based on a theory that because the plant quickly spread, creating densely populated patches, it must be a natu...

Florida Wildflower Haiku- short verse for Tuesday, Seaside Oxeye Daisy, Borrichia frutescens Florida Haiku & Nature Art, Seaside Ox-eye, Borrichia frutescens … sometimes cant tell if sun bleached oxeye masses or winged southern whites … Seaside oxeye daisy is relatively salt tolerant and often grows along brackish channels near the coast. Seaside oxeye daisy faithfully produces scores of yellow aster type flowers that attract many butterflies but especially kaleidoscopes of winged southern whites. I usually find seaside oxeye daisy grown side by side with black mangroves. Wildlife will utilize this plant’s leaves and flower heads for forage when food becomes scarce.

Florida Wildflower Haiku - Short Verse for Sunday, Wild petunia, Ruellia caroliniensis Florida Wildflower Haiku - Short Verse & Art, Wild Petunia, Ruellia caroliniensis by Kevin Songer …  purple bloom nectar attracts pollinators all, far into scrub woods … Wild petunia is always a surprise to discover growing in the woods as the plant and flower brings an aura of nice-neat cultivation to rough and ramble undergrowth. Wild petunia is a cousin of the more invasive Mexican petunia yet wild petunia is a prized Florida native wildflower and does not grow in an invasive manner. The common buckeye and white peacock butterflies seek out wild petunia as larval host plant.

Florida haiku - senryu for first fall Saturday morning; Seaside goldenrod and Mangrove buckeye. Florida Nature Poetry, Seaside Goldenrod, Mangrove Buckeye by Kevin Songer ... harvest goldenrod mangrove buckeye both bargain, anticipate first frost ...

Florida Nature Poetry - Senryu for Friday! Snowy Egrets & Sanibel Florida Poetry, Haiku - Senryu, Sanibel & Snowy Egrets by Kevin Songer  ... sanibel traffic hit the causeway early for best picnic table ...

Florida nature poetry and art; Pond apple, Annona glabra. … alligator grunts gobbling down a couple meh tasting green fruits … Pond apple trees, like pop ash and black gum grow up out of the deep and dark swamp depths, producing apple-like fruits eaten by alligators and other wildlife. I would describe pond apple fruit’s taste as more ‘blah-bland’ than tasty, but some do make jellies and jams from the fruit. Pond apple provides habitat for wildlife, birds, orchids and bromeliads. Fort Myers' Six Mile Cypress boardwalk is a great place to experience pond apple up close.

Florida nature haiku - short verse for Tuesday, another verse about 'paths'. Florida Nature Poetry, Haiku, Senryu, Lover's Key by Kevin Songer ... today's trail was full of ancient stardust turned to sand, leaves and me ... Lover's Key, Fort Myers, Florida

Florida nature senryu for Tuesday, Perdido Key Beach and Life Paths, Perdido Key, Kevin Songer ... sometimes backward path is our path forward, yet wind and waves erase both ...

Florida Nature Senryu for Monday, Sand Gnats and Bunche Beach, Bunche Beach Flats at Sunset, Kevin Songer ... gonna go fishing bunche beach mullet schools sand gnats chase us home ...

Florida Nature Poetry for Sunday, Sandhill Milkweed, Asclepias humistrata Florida Wildflower Haiku, Sandhill Milkweed, Asclepias humistrata by Kevin Songer ... dunes' brilliant hot white blooms adorn blinding sands pollinators feast ...

Perdido Key Nature Poetry, Haiku by Kevin Songer ... fresh new paths from billion year old sands changes permanence ... Perdido Key ku

Wildflower Haiku for Florida Saturday morn.  'Hummer Across Beach Dunes'. Florida Wildflower and Wildlife Haiku by Kevin Songer Gaillardia, Helianthus, Coral Bean & wayward Green Violetear on the dunes ... peaceful sand dunes bees buzz, gulls cry, waves crash and   hummer’s roar startles ...

Wednesday Florida native plant & wildflower haiku (short verse), Smilax spp. Florida Haiku, Wildflowers & Native Plant Art, Smilax spp. by Kevin Songer … wily cat brier scampers up tall long leaf pine hold tight sharp tip thorns … Catbrier provides the hungry hiker a quick energizing snack with its tender, tasty vine tips. Some sauté the green vine ends in butter and say the flavor resembles asparagus. Catbrier’s vines are loaded with thorns, making the mature, thickly vining plant a veritable evergreen barrier and providing wildlife with protected communal habitat.

Tuesday morning Florida native plant and wildflower haiku, Purple Muhly Grass Florida Wildflower Poetry & Art, Purple Muhly grass, Mulenbergia spp. by Kevin Songer … sweetgrass baskets muhly and pine needles weave art of carrying rice … Purple muhly grass lines the median of many native plant landscaped downtown streets in Florida. During late summer the blooms form a cloud-like top to the grass in brilliant white, purple and pink shades. This grass gives important communal habitat to birds and small mammals and once established is extremely drought tolerant. Muhly grass has a long history of ethnobotanical uses by native Americans and early settlers.  Woven from plant leaf blades, early plantation workers carried rice and other goods up from the fields in muhly grass baskets and satchels. Green Gardening Matters' post on muhly grass offers helpful hints on growing the grass as well as more of the interesting history of the plant.

Gallberry-Inkberry, Ilex glabra Gallberry (aka Inkberry) Ilex glabra by Kevin Songer … munch inkberry drupes old turkey, possum and deer sport smeared purple lips … Gallberry is also known as inkberry, and its dark black juice filled berries have been used by peoples over generations as ink. Birds and wildlife relish the berries for forage. Early settlers and indigenous peoples have made a tea similar to yaupon tea from gallberry’s leaves (see Appalachian tea). Interestingly, gallbladder is a holly like yaupon however gallberry’s leaves do not contain the significant amount of caffeine that yaupon leaves possess. Gallberry’s flowers attract bees from afar. Gallberry honey is highly prized by many.

Wildflower Haiku, Rayless sunflower, Helianthus radula Floria Wildflower Haiku Art, Rayless Sunflower, Helianthus radula by Kevin Songer … wet ditch oddity deep maroon pyres reach high swallowtails alight ... Rayless sunflower is a bit of an oddity standing erect like black eyed Susans and echinacea but lacking petals. Rayless sunflower’s head is composed of a collection of small brown florets and the plant is a member of the Helianthus (sunflower) genus. I usually see rayless sunflower growing alongside of wet drainage ditches and along the margins of shallow sloping ponds. Despite a lack of petals, rayless sunflower attracts many different pollinators. I find the plant’s stark structural appearance to be an interesting addition to a wet area landscape and an inspiration for nature art.

Always too much of a hurry I'm in.  The rush towards finish line and next project contributed largely in part to my aortic dissection (along with genetic tendencies). Haiku and Wildflowers, both are forever evolving, Kevin Songer Being present in the moment and Zen are practices I am still learning of, wanting to tap into their health benefits.  Health practitioners speak of cardiovascular, mental and life quality gains to be had through focusing on breathing and the here and now. And so writing short verse opens doors leading to an understanding of life's meaning.  Being still and knowing the cosmos are magically penultimate.  I use the word 'magically' to mean 'ever changing, not-constant and unknowable. Life is refined daily through natural selection processes.  Nature does this.  Humans do this too with hybrid crops and domestic animals. Perfection doesn't exist.  There is always an unfolding. My haiku, or short verse also teaches me abo...

Florida wildflower haiku for Thursday; Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa Florida wildflower haiku, Butterfly Weed, Asclepias tuberosa by Kevin Songer … milkweeds toxin sap eaten by Monarch larvae hungry birds disdain … Butterfly weed (also known as 'milkweed') provides nectar for many pollinators, including butterflies and hummingbirds. Butterfly weed likes to grow in sandy soils and is a larval host plant for the Queen and Monarch butterflies. Interestingly, milkweed contains sap substances that are sometimes toxic to birds. Some butterflies have taken advantage of this toxicity by laying eggs on milkweed in order for the hungry larvae to ingest leaves full of these toxins, which fill their body with a taste predator birds disdain ultimately providing the larvae and young butterflies with much needed protection.

Florida native plant short verse for Wednesday. Sea oats, Uniola paniculata Florida Nature Haiku, Sea Oats, Kevin Songer … mice, birds and bunnies tasty seeds eat, summer grub when no chips are around … Sea oats are a protected grass found growing along the Gulf and Atlantic seashores, primarily across the sand dunes. Sea oats provide important forage for beach mice and shorebirds as well as shelter. Their roots help stabilize dunes, preventing erosion. As a child I always possessed a strong desire to grab a handful of seeds off the plant and I’m not sure if this was because I was always told not to pick them or because it looked like a fun thing to do. Sea oats are some of the only native plants to grow in the harsh salt laden environment, close to water's edge and as such provide important communal and foraging habitat to wildlife.