Category Archives: nature

April 4, 2025

NaGloPoWriMo 4 April 2025 ~ glimmer day 93

This is a photo taken of the morning sun using my iPhone camera. ~kat

beyond the frame

my room has frames of living art
shades of green and blue and gold
rain-splashed watercolored trees
clustered leaves in pale chartreuse 
exposed patches of earthen clay
rich in grubs, where turkeys play 

each window of my country home
reveals the splendor just outside 
i wake up to the sun at dawn
and drift to sleep by moon at night
my walls in general are bare
paint on canvas can’t compare
with nature’s perfect masterpiece
where I am a one with all I see

~kat

I have stated before that when we moved to our little country home in the Blue Ridge foothills we decided to leave the windows undressed. It felt weird at first. I felt exposed, vulnerable even. But as I settled into this new experience after decades of shuttering myself off from the world outside; from the noise and nosy passersby, I realized what a gift it is to live so close to the natural world. I experience the seasons intimately as the landscape moves through spring, summer, autumn and winter. Wildlife passes by everyday, the birds, the deer, raccoons, squirrels and opossums. Storms rush in, shaking the roof, bending the trees and soaking the earth before fading to mist under an occasional rainbow. I wake to the rising sun and sleep under a starry moonlit sky. I didn’t realize when we moved how much I needed this place. It has saved me in so many ways and I am reminded that I am not separate from the world around me, but intrinsically a part of it. I left town and gained the world.

Much love, peace, and glimmers to you. Every day is a glimmer waiting to be discovered!

~kat ✨✨💚✨✨

NaGloPoWriMo 4 April 2025 Prompt: Today, we’d like to challenge you to write your own poem about living with a piece of art.

5 Comments | tags: Challenge, digital art., digital photography, free verse, Glimmers, nature, Poem a Day, Poetry, Rhymed Verse | posted in 2025, Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, napowrimo, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Rhymed Verse, Spirituality

March 30, 2025

day 88 ~ a ReVerse Poem

By Kat Myrman

a ReVerse Poem ~ Sunday, March 30, 2025

we see the smoke billowing, blotting out the sky
liberty mourns for her children
death moans lazily
it was great for a while
there once was an old gal who rarely got sick
forced me to choose, I chose | to speak truth to power
overwhelming to bear
in my little world
call her what you will
winter is lingering
a dawn visitation
nature sings her song of spring
you cannot break us, not today

~kat

Interesting, challenging times we’re living in. It’s a time when writing this blog, and especially chronicling the truth of what is happening in my country feels like a bold act of resistance. These days other, more vulnerable people (due to their citizenship status) are randomly singled out by masked vigilantes (I don’t believe for a minute that these people are actual legally deputized law enforcement) and disappeared from sight to god knows where with no due process or recourse. It gives me pause. It should give all of us pause. In a matter of roughly 2 months the America I knew has been given over to criminals armed with the power to dismantle checks and balances, safety nets and systems, as they set the stage to coronate as dictator king, a felonious, serial predator, and liar who seeks to colonize and rule the western continents alongside his comrade with like motivations in the east.

I keep asking myself if I’m overreacting as ignorant, maga lemmings chide me that it’s not that bad, certainly not as bad as when “other” democratic leaders flanked the helm. It’s madness…or maybe I’m just mad, as in insane, but also as in angry as hell and incensed by it all.

So…I’m still here, and will continue use my voice, chronicling what it feels like to experience the end of a democracy. When this year began I determined, for my own sanity that I needed to deal with the fear and angst I was feeling. I found a life-changing article about glimmers. As a refresh…

Glimmers are small moments of joy or peace that arise from appreciating simple things like the colors of a rainbow, the scent of a flower, or the sound of the rain.
Glimmers and triggers are opposites in that glimmers spark positive feelings while triggers spark negative ones.
The practice of noticing and appreciating glimmers can cue your nervous system to relax and have a positive effect on your mental health.
To increase the odds of noticing glimmers, spend time in places that nourish you, connect with people you enjoy, limit screen time, and practice mindfulness.

Read more about glimmers and how they came to be here. Apparently the concept has taken off everywhere. I had no idea at the time I was joining a movement by focusing my little blog on sharing my glimmers with you. (Glimmers in the air…or the water perhaps? 😉) But here we are, and so it is…and most importantly, so it will continue. I have found that I cannot live without them.

Tomorrow we head into national/global poetry month. My daily focus will remain “glimmers” with the added inspiration from daily prompts. Rest assured I plan to keep the glimmers coming. And I hope you too to take up this practice. We need glimmers now more than ever.

Much love, peace, and glimmers to you!

~kat ✨✨💚✨✨

5 Comments | tags: digital art., digital photography, Glimmers, Poem a Day, Poetry, ReVerse, Shi Sai, week in Reverse, Week in Review | posted in 2025, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Reverse Poem, Shi Sai, Social Issues, Week in Review

March 28, 2025

day 86 (part 2) ah spring

By Kat Myrman

the greening

beneath the mountain
nature sings her song of spring
breathing earth to life

~kat~

Today was a perfect spring day. The sun was shining. The sky blue with wisps of clouds. The hummingbirds are due back in about a week. And there is the sweetest warm breeze tossing the trees. I look forward to the leaves popping from the tree limbs. This year we had so many wind storms that there is nothing left on the forest floor. I’ve never seen things so blighted. But I do rest in the hope that nature will restore what winter swept away. When spring bursts to life it will fill me with joy. There is also joy in the anticipation; in the knowing that the seasons are ever faithful.

No matter what challenges may confront me, I try to remember these lessons from nature…the rising sun at dawn, its setting at dusk, the shape shifting moon of many faces, the stars in constellation fixed in place, the movement of the planets, the tides’ ebb and flow, the abundance of the harvest every year, and the new life that bursts onto the scene every spring. What a wonderful life this is. And how blessed we are to be alive to witness it.

I know, I know, the news…it was another shocking day of injustice and abuse of power by the miscreants in the US white house and the halls of congress…just as it will be tomorrow and the next day. I’m afraid that is our lot right now. I’m engaged in the opposition….and a safe place and helper when opportunities present themselves.

But the world…my world right here, right now is alive in anticipation of the fullness of spring. Today, that’s what I’m focusing on. It is after all, what truly matters. not to mention, it give me hope. ✨💚✨

Much love, peace and glimmers of spring to you!

~kat

Magnetic Poetry Nature Kit / Haiku

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March 20, 2025

day 79

By Kat Myrman

ode to freedom
to symbols of goodness
how special you were
then smooth operators in suits
took power from the people…
it was great for a while

~kat

Tried a new Magnetic Poetry Kit…the Mustache. It’s pretty much a collection of the words you might expect to find in a mustache category. Our country reeks of excessive, aggressive testosterone these days. No offense at all intended toward the gentlemanly men in the world. But hardness and meanness, bullish behavior is celebrated these days. How sad it makes me feel to have to witness this in my lifetime. And how I mourn for my children’s children who are inheriting this disaster.

After work today I walked outside to get some fresh air and soak in the last rays of sunlight. To the west the sun burned bright and golden just above the horizon. To the east storm clouds hung over the budding trees along my driveway. Random raindrops dotted the ground and the wind whistled through the treetops. I needed that glimmer. My day was long and challenging and what little news I caught was not good. But how grateful I am to have lived another day, and to be blessed with such a beautiful sight at day’s end. Grab your glimmers wherever, whenever you can. It is like manna from heaven!

Peace, Love, and Glimmers to you!

~kat

3 Comments | tags: digital art., digital photography, Glimmers, Magnetic Poetry, Poem a Day, Poetry | posted in 2025, Digital Art & Photos, Essays, Life Lessons, Magnetic Poetry, nature, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Social Issues, Spirituality

March 16, 2025

day 75 ~ time again for a ReVerse

By Kat Myrman

A ReVerse Poem ~ March 2025

Can you see it? Why can’t you see it?
We have a murder folks
Even the TURKEYS are restless
when everything slowly faded
with a sharpie in hand rename points on the map
the sun fills the sky with light
they leaned in to hear more
paying it forward to someone in need
filling our hearts with joie de vivre
at least they cannot cancel spring
since we stole an hour from dawn
you can’t eclipse her
Blood Moon on a Starry Night
we laughed then, but it’s not funny now
if it’s with not at

~kat

Happy ReVerse Poetry Day where I revisit the last few weeks of postings and weave together a new poem by lifting a favorite line from each day’s entry.

Today’s ReVerse is a bit all over the place. Kind of like the affairs of the world…chaotic…frenetic…destructive leaving us all stunned in the wake. I have to admit I thought it would be bad, but the last few months has far exceeded my worst expectations. The latest stroke of trumps poison pen orders include a stop to all federal funding for the institute of museums and library services as well as an order to ram the final nails into the USAid coffin by demanding that all classified records be shredded, and if there are too many to shred…to burn them. We need to remember … we need to keep reminding ourselves and others of how we used to be before the those claiming to make things great began their rampage of destruction. We need to hold those stories close to our hearts and tell them to our children and grandchildren…the stories of our imperfect experiment in democracy, fraught with civil wars and challenges, and crimes against indigenous peoples and African peoples but who managed to have glimmers of greatness, of justice, compassion, inclusion, and kindness.

Currently, we are a disaster, not to be trusted. This US administration is erasing all evidence of the truth. But there are legions of us who know the truth and who see the lies for what they are, perpetrated by insecure, selfish, criminal, vile, white men who want it all, even if they have to destroy us and everything good to get it.

Once again world, I am so very sorry for the monster that our country’s ignorant fools have unleashed on you. I have never been so grateful to have moved to the hills several years ago so I don’t have to see them every day through my window. I like it here with the songbirds and my beloved murder of crows, and the squirrels and chipmunks, the turkeys and opossums and raccoons, the snapping turtles and snakes…and the fungi, flowers, blackberry bushes, and trees. There are glimmers to be found in this ash heap of a country yet…all around for those of us willing to see, and always to be treasured in our hearts!

Peace, Love, and Glimmers to you!

~kat

I’ll leave you with a few of those glimmers…I hope they lighten your heart like they do mine! ✨💚✨