Common Sparrow

Hair is gray, but not yet retired. Currently working two jobs - Love both of them. Native of New York by Ontario's shore, with Canadian childhood memories. Lifelong Democrat, moving ever further left as the years pass. Have a half-dozen double-stacked bookcases of secondhand books, and still keep my public library card busy. Honorary Gramma to a cute kiddo. Dog lover and recorder of audiobooks for LibriVox.

#DailyHaikuPrompt #BookRecommendations #Books #Libraries #LibriVox #History #NoBots

My LibriVox Projects: https://librivox.org/reader/8051
My Book Blog: https://mariasbooks.wordpress.com
Pronouns: she/her

Public Key

npub1tau4e5cp58gnm2qwhp9l7tjr59gk3nkk3c6u3sgzsnmtv0072zcque5msr

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commonsparrow_at_mindly.social@momostr.pink

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nprofile1qqs9772u6vq6r5fa4q8tsjll9ep6z5tgemtgudwgcypgfa4k8hl9pvqprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0d4hhxarj9ecxjmntqyf8wumn8ghj7mmxve3ksctfdch8qatza0fyjh

Publishing to

relay.momostr.pink

offchain.pub

relay.snort.social

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npub1tau4e5cp58gnm2qwhp9l7tjr59gk3nkk3c6u3sgzsnmtv0072zcque5msr

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Published at

2026-10-30T06:24:15Z

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Last Notes

2026-10-23 06:19:54 UTC

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We must be of the same generation! We also had that album in the 1960's. My sisters and I used to sing "Step in Time" while marching around and around the bus stop, (to our mother's annoyance and dad's amusement).

2026-10-23 06:06:02 UTC

For this week's jukebox music theme, Play Time, here is "Let's Go Fly a Kite", from the movie "Mary Poppins". Written by Richard and Robert Sherman, sung by David Tomlinson and cast.
"With tuppence for paper and strings,
You can have your own set of wings,
With your feet on the ground
You're a bird in a flight,
With your fist holding tight
To the string of your kite.
Oh, let's go fly a kite,
Up to the highest height,
Let's go fly a kite,
And send it soaring,
Up through the atmosphere,
Up where the air is clear,
Oh, let's go fly a kite."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl2liDVKBGw
#JukeboxFridayNight #PlayTime

2026-10-21 22:54:08 UTC

Today I mailed my final 300 postcards-to-voters at the post office on the way home from work. Early voting here in New York State begins this weekend. Less than two weeks until Election Day.
#VoteEarly #Vote #NoKings
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/117/481/329/192/745/758/original/fb8484adfd5c6693.jpg

2026-10-18 13:01:05 UTC

Just pulled in to work to find this elegant friend at the parking lot entrance, an alert watchful presence.
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/117/462/020/500/303/614/original/8bf80c0b5793d12a.jpg

2026-10-18 00:03:38 UTC

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Thank you for such a mammoth effort! I've only managed about 500. I'm still trying to finish the final batch before Wednesday's mailing deadline. You are a champion postcard powerhouse! (Here is my last batch in progress.)
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/117/458/972/096/661/202/original/deada0033b63a5c7.jpg

2026-10-15 04:23:18 UTC

This is wonderful!
"Since a poetry festival first came up with the idea in 1988, lines of verse have been printed on all of the city’s [Rotterdam's] waste vehicles. The practice was this week elevated to the status of intangible cultural heritage, with formal recognition from a Dutch body that guards the nation’s traditions..."
“Since 1988, poetry has been travelling through Rotterdam on our bin lorries,” said Joan Nunnely, the deputy mayor for culture, community and language. “You see it as you cycle to work or wait for a lorry to pass. Sometimes you read a line that stays with you for the rest of the day. What started as a quirky idea has become part of our city.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/15/rotterdam-poems-bin-lorries-granted-cultural-status
#Poetry

2026-10-11 22:35:29 UTC

By October moon,
we hunt for the Great Pumpkin,
find it in the sky.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Hunters Moon

2026-10-05 22:34:36 UTC

How intent your gaze,
that day when our eyes first met.
Vivid memory.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Vivid

2026-09-30 02:35:50 UTC

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In honor of #NationalCoffeeDay here are a few coffee memories.
1. My dad drank coffee black and unsweetened, what he called "diner joe". He would drop an ice cube in a freshly poured hot cuppa, to quickly cool it enough to make it immediately drinkable without mouth scorching. He drank it from a melmac coffee mug with wicker insulation. This daily routine of dad's morning coffee, ice cube, and melmac-wicker mug are dear memories of the guy who was my lifelong hero.
2. When I began drinking coffee in late teens, I took it black and unsweetened, because of course I wanted to be like my dad. Sweetened, it didn't taste like Proper Coffee. "Diner joe" it has been for the rest of my life. My dad bought me a ceramic coffee mug, blue with brown speckles, to be my own special mug, and I used it for decades.
3. I finally met my Brian, when I was in my late 40's. On our first date we ordered coffee. He drank it black and unsweetened! A good omen! We hit it off for more important reasons, but Brian's taste in coffee seemed apropos. He drank his coffee from an old work mug with the logo of our local Dept of Environmental Services, because pretty cups were not important to him. In the evenings, after work, I have a sweet memory of Brian carrying the mugs into the living room, with a small paper bag of doughnuts swinging from his teeth, to sip the last of the day's warmed-up coffee with an evening movie.
Here's a favorite photo of we three with our coffee cups in hand.
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/117/357/573/287/774/833/original/bb3362a11d8567e6.jpg

2026-09-27 21:30:58 UTC

"Island in the Sun",
sing and sway to radio,
kitchen sunbeams dance
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Sunbeam

2026-09-26 19:43:56 UTC

Groping up the hill
blindly through gray muffling fog
to reach glistening sun.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Fog

2026-09-17 03:54:48 UTC

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Yes! Thank you for the encouragement!
"Do what you can with what you have" is an excellent motto!

2026-09-17 03:21:43 UTC

It's been awhile since I wrote anything here about what I'm personally doing in my small acts of resistance. I had been dealing with burnout and change of direction, and felt unsure of myself, unsure whether I had been a quitter.
Back in January, inspired by the show of resistance in Minneapolis, I had begun regularly holding up a protest sign on a street corner near my house. The signs varied, as there were so many issues to protest. "No ICE", "Defend Voting Rights", "Standing up for Our Neighbors", were some of the signs.
I was out there three to five times a week, for an hour at a time. Usually I went immediately after I got out of work, parking on my way home, and choosing a sign from the collection in the car. Traffic mostly just drove on by, some honking/waving, most not seeming to notice me.
By the time July rolled around, I was feeling tired, discouraged, and burned out. I decided I needed a holiday. So I gave myself the month of August off, and relished the break and the "normal" evenings at home.
By late August, I felt like a quitter who'd given up and pulled back from the fight, and it was not a good feeling. But I had no energy to resume standing on corners.
So, in late August, I began writing postcards to voters. I've finished two batches and am now on my third batch. It's something I can do in the evenings, at home, and still feel useful, even if less visible. Sometimes we just have to do what our limits allow, even small things.
#Resistance #Democracy

2026-09-08 19:25:12 UTC

Old dried willow leaves
scurried across the front porch.
I thought they were mice.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Willow Leaves

2026-08-18 18:14:09 UTC

Front porch swing, good book,
day fades, just one more chapter,
squinting in the dusk.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Dusk

2026-08-01 00:20:56 UTC

Common roadside weeds,
milkweed, goldenrod, yarrow,
butterfly banquets.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Yarrow

2026-07-29 23:13:38 UTC

This isn't over.
Don't think you've quenched us for good.
We're still smoldering.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Smoldering

2026-06-27 00:23:23 UTC

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It was once anyone's right to touch the water in that pool.
Photo from 1963 March on Washington.
Demonstrators sit with their feet resting in the Reflecting Pool.
From Library of Congress photo collection.
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ds.00834/
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/819/195/435/536/217/original/bce355fd61c29b6a.jpg

2026-06-26 02:19:28 UTC

Dim gray afternoon,
film of misty silver drops,
one vibrant goldfinch.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Vibrant

2026-06-11 01:02:27 UTC

Hot muggy doldrums,
then sudden refreshing spray.
Lean in thirstily.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Spray

2026-06-07 23:37:41 UTC

Ankle deep wetland,
green cattails and wild iris,
rainbow dragonflies.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Wild Iris

2026-06-03 13:28:32 UTC

I love how they fly,
precisely slicing the air,
dipping and swerving.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Swallow

2026-06-02 00:39:54 UTC

Canning jars clatter.
Sweltering, steaming, sticky.
Sweet red plum jelly.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Swelter

2026-05-26 23:45:01 UTC

The pale pink shadow
cast by the peony bush,
drifts of strewn petals.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Peony

2026-05-18 00:20:17 UTC

Pull up a chair, girl,
let down your hair to gossip,
spill me some new tea.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - New Tea

2026-05-16 13:01:17 UTC

Added a new sign to the rotation.
I'll be out on my street corner holding it up in person after work this evening.
Defend the Voting Rights Act, people!
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/584/358/591/915/793/original/4007edb0d797683e.jpg

2026-05-14 23:50:34 UTC

Thought within thought and
onion within onion nests.
Matryoshkas all.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Nest

2026-05-08 18:22:44 UTC

This porch belongs to
ferocious robins guarding
naked new-hatched chicks.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Chick

2026-04-30 05:01:53 UTC

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"Forget your perfect offering, ring the bells that still can ring. There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in." (Leonard Cohen)

2026-04-23 18:49:05 UTC

Miles to go, and yet
I must pause for sheer delight -
a newborn calf frisks.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Calf

2026-04-22 20:59:52 UTC

Each fragile green stem
rising up through hard cement,
stronger than it looks.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Stem

2026-04-21 21:01:51 UTC

Stretching out their arms,
welcoming the wind, whirling round,
dancing with the breeze.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Windmill

2026-04-10 01:40:53 UTC

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Thank you for being a virtual friend to so many of us here!

2026-04-08 02:08:24 UTC

Chilly early spring,
otters are busy swimming,
ripples on the pond.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Pond
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/366/625/259/189/548/original/b69bf1657cba6947.jpg

2026-04-04 02:20:54 UTC

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I love Summer!

2026-03-28 23:53:59 UTC

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Missed the official No Kings rally because of work today. But I was out on my usual Saturday street corner after mass this evening. My hopes of getting some friends to join me didn't pan out, so it was again just me solo. But I was still a small part of the same great day with the millions of folks who were out earlier, even though I was a bit late to the party.
Instead of my usual homemade cardboard sign, I had something special for today's occasion. My old lawn sign is worse for wear, so I got a new one. Inaugurated it at the street corner, then planted it on the lawn when I got home.
One of my church friends caught this picture of me as they were leaving.
#NoKings #RochesterNY
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/309/444/908/602/925/original/aa2d200ffca5aedb.jpg

2026-03-28 16:50:36 UTC

I am unable to attend the big No Kings rally today because I have to work. But my car is presenting a few signs to everybody who passes it in the parking lot. And I am wearing my No Kings pin proudly on my lapel. Several visitors have commented supportively on the pin, and I hope the car signs are also making some impact.
#NoKings
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/307/785/028/299/834/original/ceb610a0137a42bc.jpg
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/307/786/507/370/980/original/3d256e289fc93026.jpg

2026-03-19 17:40:33 UTC

These things melt my heart:
giggling children, goofy dogs,
old sweet songs, your smile.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Melting

2026-03-15 20:40:41 UTC

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"Do not drive, operate heavy machinery, or address envelopes..."

2026-03-03 01:59:44 UTC

Old faded photo,
memory of dog roses,
wafts long gone perfume.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Wild Rose
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/116/162/708/767/002/432/original/169103fe66abf420.jpg

2026-02-17 01:51:31 UTC

It was a sapling.
One day, a bird perched up high.
That made it a tree.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - High

2026-01-25 03:06:01 UTC

Today was a gut punch. Came home after work to open the computer and read about another sickening murder by these ICE thugs. I wanted to do something, anything, but didn't know what. So I made a cardboard sign, and bundled up against zero-degree temperatures, and walked a few blocks to the nearest busy traffic corner with a street light. Stood there from 7pm to 8pm, just holding my lonely sign over my head for an hour.
Don't know what earthly good that did. Cars just drove by. Why was I there? It was mourning, it was respect, it was anger, it was witness, it was something I can't put a name to. This can't be allowed to go on. This must stop.
From a cold lonesome street corner here in #RochesterNY, to the unwaveringly courageous front lines of the fight in #Minneapolis, we all need to find the determination to #Resist in #Solidarity.

2026-01-25 02:48:43 UTC

We will stand our ground,
despite cold, despite blizzards,
we will not be moved.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Blizzard

2026-01-23 03:01:29 UTC

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I've been reading through this entire thread, bookmarking it to re-read when I need encouragement. Thank you for saying this! I needed to hear it!
It reminds me of a time, years ago, when a bunch of us were helping a friend move to a new apartment. Caravan of personal vehicles, lots of us loading and unloading furniture and lamps and boxes of clothes and books, shlepping stuff across parking lots and up stairs.
My elderly dad had wanted to help, too, but wasn't physically capable of the grunt work. So he became the doorman. Just stood there on the front stoop opening and holding the door, so folks carrying heavy boxes didn't have to do that awkward dance where you try to balance the box on an upraised knee and then hold the door with your hip. He just swept the door open when you approached, and even gave us a little doorman's flourish as he waved us in.
A very small task, but it made things so much quicker and easier for everybody else, so we could just go on doing our own task smoothly. I have been thinking of that example a lot lately. When I feel like whatever I am able to do in this present overwhelming crisis is not big enough, I remember my dad the doorman. What can I do, given my circumstances, to help back up the people doing the heavy lifting today? That's what I need to just jump in and do.

2026-01-17 23:09:22 UTC

Humble and earthy,
buried in dirt they mature.
Turnips don't show off.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Turnip

2026-01-04 22:23:13 UTC

I envy the bear.
Oh, to curl up in a cave
and snooze until spring!
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Bear

2025-12-27 23:41:56 UTC

Your strong warm bear hug
lifts me laughing off my feet,
swings me in circles.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Bear

2025-12-23 15:24:54 UTC

Uniformity,
broken up, mixed, joined, transformed,
lovely patterns now.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Quilt

2025-12-07 18:13:01 UTC

Empty factory,
crumbled weed-grown parking lot,
snow ghosts ride the wind.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Desolation

2025-11-26 03:40:24 UTC

As the holiday "gift-giving season" surrounds us, let's consider memberships to local cultural and educational sites as an idea. Instead of giving money to big corporations and loading up with more "things", you'd be supporting a local nonprofit, and giving the gift of a year's worth of experiences and adventures.
I sell memberships at our local zoo. A zoo membership helps support conservation education for all ages, from Kinderzoo classes for the tots, to school field trip programs, to ZooTeen and Urban Ecologist programs, to the Butterfly Beltway project and ZooMobile visits across the community. Your zoo membership enables the zoo to have the backing of steady year-round support.
There are so many other various kinds of memberships, that you can easily find one to fit your gift recipient's interests, whether a membership to your local science museum, art museum, or history site. Just in my own local #RochesterNY area, there is the Seneca Park Zoo, the Rochester Museum and Science Center, the Memorial Art Gallery, the Strong Museum of Play, the George Eastman Photography Museum and Dryden Theater, the Genesee Country Village Museum, the Ganondagan Seneca Historic and Cultural Center, and many more.
Look around and see what's available in your own local area! Boycott Amazon, Target, and all their ilk, and instead support your local cultural scene!

2025-11-17 00:39:23 UTC

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When I was fifty years younger, I had a bit part in a school play. No individual lines, perfect for a shy person. I was just one of a group of protesting "old ladies" who periodically invaded the stage in big flowery hats, waving signs and chanting demands to see the mayor.
The teacher who did our "old lady makeup" gave us each our own personalized wrinkles. He told us to make faces, grin, laugh, scowl, look scared, angry etc. Then he drew the lines that we each naturally formed. He remarked that we could look in the mirror and catch a glimpse of our own future faces.
Over all these years of living in my repeated facial expressions, I created my own individual wrinkles, from the laugh crinkles next to my eyes, to the worry furrows in my brow. My present day face is uncannily close to that school makeup face.

2025-11-03 02:43:04 UTC

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I love that phrase "razorblade rain"!

2025-10-29 22:03:59 UTC

Last spring, busy place,
Chicks cheeping, robins in flight
Now, abandoned nest.
#DailyHaikuPrompt -Desolate

2025-10-24 23:39:11 UTC

I have a disabled elderly friend who drives a specially equipped car with hand controls instead of gas and brake pedals. The car gives him mobility to get where he needs to go on the road.
But when my friend gets where he's driving, it becomes a difficult journey with a walker to get from the car into the building. He needs a close parking spot.
Disabled parking spaces are there for a reason. These determined Canadian protesters took over an entire parking lot with a blockade of wheelchairs to make their point. Angry drivers who couldn't get to a parking space that day hopefully learned something to make them stop and think.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.7132961

2025-10-19 01:02:50 UTC

I couldn't carry a big sign at a #NoKings rally today, because I had to work. But I carried this small "sign" on my uniform shirt, and it was seen by everyone I checked in at the front gate today. I couldn't be there where the action was, but I was still having my own personal rally right where I was. Several folks expressed enthusiastic support for this little sign, and nobody at all expressed disapproval.
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/115/398/072/535/674/650/original/08f06f9cc9c769d3.jpg

2025-10-17 23:26:54 UTC

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Mmmm! :)
What flavoring is the glaze? (I'd love vanilla, but I'd eat them all if it's maple.)

2025-10-17 22:38:53 UTC

Clear night, first hard frost,
cushions of soft swishing leaves
turn crispy brittle.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Crisp

2025-10-17 01:12:20 UTC

Gently ease the knots,
patiently untangle snarls,
till the comb runs smooth.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Ease

2025-10-15 23:36:26 UTC

This coming Saturday, October 18th, there will be large No Kings rallies in cities and towns across the US, as well as in other countries.
Some of us who want more than anything to be there will not be able to. Some, like me, can't get out of work. Others have medical issues which will keep them home. Others have no way to get to a rally. Still others would not be safe attending. Yet it galls us to miss the rally.
What can we do to participate? We can spread the word, and do our darndest to recruit people to go in our place. I have a friend who has supported the rallies but has been fearful of attending herself. When she saw how frustrated I am to miss this one, she said, "You've made up my mind. I'm going to this one. I'm doing it for you."
She is making a sign that will say "We are just the tip of the iceberg! For everyone you see here, there are others here in spirit. We are more numerous than you think".
I just got off the phone with another friend, who doesn't drive. She is going to call her mom and say, "If you'll drive, we could go to this together". And if mom agrees, hurray, there are two more people.
If you are like me, feeling useless because you can't be there yourself on Saturday, start talking to your friends. If you can compensate for your own absence by recruiting one, two, or three others, you will have helped.
Send them the link.
https://www.nokings.org/
#NoKings2

2025-10-15 18:06:33 UTC

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You were one of the first people I followed when I came here. I have you and two other people in a special list to make sure I don't miss any of what you post.
I need to stay informed about what's happening in this country. But I can't cope with one doom/gloom post after another, and I end up actively avoiding them. You are excellent, because you are full of calm factual information about things I need to know about, presented calmly without all the hysteria. You have made it possible for me to stay informed without gettng depressed.
Thank you for all you have done to keep accurate news flowing! I will miss your posts so much. But I understand that it must get to be too much at some point and you need to take care of yourself. Please know how much you have been appreciated!

2025-10-04 02:29:38 UTC

Longing for a frost,
a clean cold searing wake-up,
get out of this slump.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Frost

2025-09-21 23:49:39 UTC

Gentle leaves rustling?
No, this shadow is darker,
a somber looming.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Somber

2025-09-01 01:01:12 UTC

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I like the playful spectres in the second version :)

2025-08-30 23:57:50 UTC

The local bunny
favors my lawn, overrun
with tasty clover.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Clover
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/115/120/394/668/349/232/original/492c1ee1fa21b34d.jpg

2025-08-15 00:37:37 UTC

Last night, it was hot and muggy in the house, and I was depressed about the state of the world. Then I got word that I was not needed to babysit, so I had the evening free. And I remembered it was Wednesday.
Every summer Wednesday, there is a free concert at Ontario Beach. Brian and I used to go weekly. Eat a Zweigle's hot dog. Watch sailboats on the lake and dogs on the pier and volleyball players on the sand. Listen to free music in the gazebo. Brian was pledged to dance with me once at each concert, (twice if I could finagle him into it).
I haven't been to a single concert all this summer. Not the same alone for one thing, and anyway I was always babysitting on Wednesdays. But last night, having an aimless evening, and being too hot in the house, I decided on a whim to go.
I took my folding chair to the park. Bought a Zweigle's hot dog. Watched the boats, and the dogs, and the volleyball players. Felt the relief of a pleasant breeze from the lake. Listened to free music at the gazebo - The Dukes, serenading us with 1960's and 1970's R&B, sounds of long-ago youth. "Danced" with Brian to the Four Tops, although it looked to casual observers like I danced alone.
Scrolling through today's batch of #DailyHaikuPrompt contributions, I came to one that said, "Do not rob yourself of joy", and I replied "Yes! That's the truth!" Getting out to the concert last night helped "breathe on every spark", as the poet said!
(Read that revelatory haiku here:
https://mindly.social/@npub1l2m…zw0a/115029877168964301)

2025-06-03 01:06:14 UTC

My dog Lily would
scour the vines of blackberries
and leave none for me.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Berry

2025-05-17 00:35:28 UTC

My dad used to say,
"We're not lost. We're having an
adventure." He knew.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Lost

2025-05-13 21:00:50 UTC

Not a patio,
just a front stoop, but room for
your chair next to mine.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Patio

2025-05-13 01:50:27 UTC

Bird jam scats the tune,
woodpecker plays percussion,
laying down the beat.
#DailyHaikuPrompt -Woodpecker
(Yeah, I know we already wrote about woodpeckers yesterday. But I had this idea pop into my head afterwards, so here's a second woodpecker haiku.)

2025-05-05 02:14:21 UTC

Legendary bird,
angelic rippling singer,
so say the poets.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Skylark
(Unfortunately I live in the wrong hemisphere, and will never meet one, except in poems.)

2025-04-28 13:55:09 UTC

- reply

"Harvesting the breeze" is a wonderful choice of words!

2025-04-23 00:53:21 UTC

Feels like it's still night,
dark overcast morning. Then,
bright blue pierces through.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Spring Sky

2025-04-14 02:27:26 UTC

Don't look to the past.
See, we're doing something new.
Birth can be messy.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Birth

2025-04-10 01:39:17 UTC

Unseen airy hand
lightly tweaks a lock of hair
to tickle my nose.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Soft Breeze

2025-04-09 03:49:53 UTC

Dot eyes, smiley mouth,
on my baloney sandwich,
happy mustard face.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Mustard
(childhood memories)

2025-04-08 01:52:35 UTC

April daffodils,
clad in white furry sweaters,
shocked by this strange chill.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Late Frost

2025-03-30 02:12:55 UTC

Sticky toast, laden
with stolen golden honey.
The bees want it back.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Bee

2025-03-28 02:13:17 UTC

Daffodil hillside,
more than exotic gardens,
amazes my soul.
#DailyHaikuPrompt -Daffodil

2025-03-26 01:50:56 UTC

The mighty bullfrog
was once a tiny tadpole.
We must all start small.
#DailyHaikuPrompt -Tadpole

2025-03-21 02:17:47 UTC

I walked right past it,
brown hare frozen in the grass,
till it leapt and ran.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Hare

2025-03-20 01:21:22 UTC

Earth and sky balance,
day and night pause between breaths,
universe at rest.
#DailyHaikuPrompt -Equinox

2025-03-14 00:46:37 UTC

Full moon, just risen,
stained rusty red, lurking low
behind the buildings.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Full Moon

2025-03-05 02:14:47 UTC

Come out of your shell.
The world needs you, little chick.
True, it's cold out here.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Shell

2025-02-28 02:01:04 UTC

What is mud good for?
Marshes, wetlands, rushes, reeds.
And, of course, mud pies.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Mud

2025-02-27 23:26:38 UTC

Our local public library sent out this interesting announcement today:
https://rochistory.wordpress.com/2025/02/27/the-archive-of-black-history-culture-collecting-preserving-rochesters-black-history/
"The Archive of Black History and Culture is a new, community-curated repository in the Local History & Genealogy Division seeking to repair the historical record by collecting, preserving, and disseminating resources that document the experiences of Rochester’s Black residents—past, present, and future. The archive will ensure that the stories we tell about the Greater Rochester community—and the resources that allow us to tell those stories—better reflect all residents’ experiences and contributions. .."
"...The library was approached by historical Black churches and organizations in the area seeking a place to keep their records, and we realized there was no place in our existing collections to house this material. These occurrences shed light on the gaps in our existing collections and exacerbated the already glaring truth that unfortunately, too few archival collections document the history of our community’s African American residents. ... It was also decided that the archive would be guided by the principle that the people whose stories are being documented should have the agency to decide for themselves how their history will be preserved and shared. ..."
Hurrah for libraries! Always looking for ways to close gaps in their collections, open to growth and improvement. Looking forward to seeing what's new in this collection moving forward!
#BlackHistoryMonth #Libraries

2025-02-25 04:11:51 UTC

Sunrise drive to work.
Flaming glow ahead of me.
Highway paved with gold.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Sunrise

2025-02-24 03:25:14 UTC

Act of devotion.
Patient. Steady. Heat, wax, dye.
Egg, dressed in glory.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Egg
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/114/056/700/976/037/901/original/1a226c63195e61e6.jpeg

2025-02-21 23:53:42 UTC

One year ago today, my partner Brian died. He was one of that week's covid statistics. According to the weekly tracking of covid deaths, 1,515 Americans died in the same week as Brian.
https://mindly.social/@npub17vv…mg8c/111982182949584596
Every one of those deaths was a person whose loss hit somebody as hard as Brian's death hit me. Every one was more than just a statistic.
Brian came into my life when I was nearly 50, when I wasn't expecting to meet a special someone. We had 15 wonderful years together. He had semi-retired, was working part-time. I was a bit younger, still working two jobs. We were talking about all the fun things we were going to do when we were both retired. We expected to have another good 10 to 15 years ahead of us.
Avoided covid for four years. Vaccinated, boosted, wearing masks at work or when shopping. Both of my jobs are public facing jobs, so I was especially careful.
But by 2024, everyone else was getting careless. Sick people coughing all over us, unmasked, were all around us. At one of our part-time jobs, where we both worked, was one such person. We both were finally caught by covid.
I was flat on my back at home for a week. Brian was hospitalized in ICU, developed pneumonia, and died.
Covid is still out there, folks. So is flu, and RSV, and other nasty things. If you are sick, stay home. If you must go out, (yes, there are medical appointments, and quick runs for food), then have the common sense to wear a mask out there.
Do it for my Brian.
#CovidIsNotOver

2025-02-20 03:30:22 UTC

Between cement slabs,
stubborn grassroots push through cracks.
Life springs ever green.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Evergreen
1/3

2025-02-18 03:55:27 UTC

- reply

I couldn't attend any local protests in person, because I was confined to babysitting all day long. (Munchkin home with ear infection). But I wanted to participate, so I wrote to a bunch of elected officials to get my voice in amongst the others.
A friend told me that her daughter-in-law, (just under 5 feet tall and very feisty), participated in a protest in Iowa, where she lives. She was pushed and knocked down by a policeman, but was not arrested with others, because she was limping, and they said they didn't want "liability" if she was in custody! My friend was extremely proud of her DIL.

2025-02-15 23:00:37 UTC

In night's thick darkness,
one pre-dawn bird call startles.
Day is not far now.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Day

2025-02-11 03:02:59 UTC

Today's book recommendation for Black History Month is "Medical Apartheid" by Harriet A. Washington, winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.
Most of us are somewhat familiar with the infamous Tuskegee Syphillis Study. But if we think that was an anomoly, Harriet Washington's book sets us straight. This comprehensive account of racism in medical research takes us from the colonial era to the present day.
The author traces the long history of medical malpractice on black bodies, from grave-robbing and dissections of black corpses, to horrific and painful experimental surgeries without anesthesia, to zoo-like public displays of black "specimens", to experimental research in which participants were lied to about the nature of the study, to nonconsentual harvesting of genetic material.
In addition to such directly harmful medical procedures, medical philosphies such as eugenics also contributed to dehumanizing attitudes about black people, despite having no truth to them.
In another of her books, "A Terrible Thing to Waste" Washington explores the related topic of environmental racism, detailing how black communities are disproportionately harmed by environmental toxins, with serious effects on the health of residents and the brain development of children.
Link to book "Medical Apartheid"-
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/185986/medical-apartheid-by-harriet-a-washington/
Link to book "A Terrible Thing to Waste"-
https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/harriet-a-washington/a-terrible-thing-to-waste/9780316509428/
#BlackHistoryMonth
#BookRecommendations

2025-02-09 23:54:13 UTC

- reply

"A blue jay fades to a crow". This is brilliant!

2025-02-09 01:55:41 UTC

Daylight's leftovers,
salmon smears pooled round the rim
of scattered cloud scraps.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Dusk

2025-02-08 04:35:03 UTC

Let the world fight on
for a few hours without me.
I'm looking at stars.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Serene

2025-02-07 02:07:44 UTC

Muddy winter brown.
Then, one day, a flood of blue.
Fresh spring violets.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Violet

2025-02-06 06:01:10 UTC

We walk towards something
out of sight. One step. One more.
Each step a journey.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Pilgrimage

2025-02-04 03:19:39 UTC

Far too big a word
to contain in three brief lines.
"Friend" flows endlessly.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Friend

2025-02-03 02:35:37 UTC

Freeze. Thaw. Freeze and thaw.
Stressed pavement cracks and crumbles.
Potholes ambush cars.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Thaw

2025-02-01 03:05:12 UTC

Batting peeking through
patchwork of scrappy colors.
Dad's quilt, loved to bits.
#DailyHaikuPrompt - Quilt
This haiku is about a quilt we made for my dad, which I posted about a few days ago. There's a picture of it here -
https://mindly.social/@CommonSparrow/113909336571565453