This is what greeted me through the kitchen window this morning—a common forsythia, bare of nearly all its leaves, transformed into a sparkling shrub of diamonds. Last night’s raindrops still held, pendant, along the arched branches and fully caught the sun at just that moment.
I used my cross-screen filter to enhance the brightest drops. Without it they appeared as simply flashed-out circles and not the diamonds I had envisioned. Certainly something beautiful to see first thing.
I had a lovely photo of yesterday’s frosty morning in my back yard, but as the day grew dark early today I passed this ebullient display of holiday cheer on a dark rainy day and decided I had to share it.
This particular little house was once a garage to a huge Victorian home. It not only faces the alley but the narrow porch steps right onto the sunken and undulating bricks of the alley. One would think it wasn’t the choicest place to live, yet I always see children and adults around, lots of toys and talk and play; it seems to be a happy little house. I wasn’t surprised to see this complete selection of holiday decorations.
The shining bricks and puddles in the alley reflect the holiday cheer. Note the homemade Steelers emblem in the left-hand window; no display in Pittsburgh would be complete without it.
I usually associate holiday lights with snow, or at least with a clear cold night, but I also love colorful night photography and especially rainy nights.
Another overcast rainy day with a blue cast to the light, reflected on the wet leaves and filtering through the mist. The shapes and colors blend so it almost looks like an abstract pattern.
Tiny pendulous raindrops held in place on the back of an impatiens leaf by surface pressure, the leaf bisected by its spine, the drops showing dark shadows on the bright side, brilliant magnified sun on the dark side of the leaf.
The white Rose of Sharon flowers always reminded me of an old-fashioned bonnet or frilly hat, here caught the morning after a rain with water droplets weighing down the petals.
On a very dark day, each drop of rain left on the grass captures the glow of the overcast sky. I am looking at the grass, but the grass is looking at the sky.
After a rainy night, everything in the yard was decorated with droplets catching the morning sun. Appearing like tiny pearls suspended in air, this little cobweb close to the ground holds its moisture. The resident spider is back in the shadows, probably annoyed with me since I’m blocking the insects who might typically visit.
It is a gently raining morning, and now afternoon, so I share this poem in print and in the recorded version…
PAWPRINTS AND RAINDROPS
I am not awake but aware
of the sound of raindrops
whispering in the leaves and tapping on the roof
in the early morning, still dark
and little Kelly, sensing my awareness
hurries over and steps on my back;
I feel her tiny cold paws dimpling the surface of my skin
as I drift off in the murmur of her purr and the rain
I think of raindrops on water,
I am the water, my skin the surface
and I can look up and in the increasing daylight
see the circular ripples of contentment
mingling on my own surface.
You can listen to the poem too—see the link below.
About the poem…
I wrote this poem in 2009 but finalized it in 2010 just in time for my annual poetry reading at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in February 2010. “Pawprints and Raindrops” went on to be published in a variety of sites on the internet, and it also won both a Certificate of Excellence and Muse Medallion for poetry from the Cat Writer’s Association in 2010. In spring 2012 I began recording some of my poems, especially those with highly visual content so that I could also create a slideshow of images to accompany the text.
I’ve recorded it with a slideshow of images and uploaded it to YouTube, but you can click the embedded video below and watch it right here.
Visit my YouTube site for all my recorded poems (so far).
About my poetry and poetry readings
“Paths I Have Walked”
In December, 2006, two of my poems were chosen to be published on a section of the Prairie Home Companion website entitled “Stories From Home/First Person” for submissions of writing about the place we feel most familiar. ACFL&MH invited me to perform a poetry reading and to display the artwork that inspired those poems.
After each show I’ve built a web page with the poetry and art I featured. Please visit, read my poetry and view my artwork. My prior readings have been:
I am currently preparing Paths I Have Walked for various e-readers. I will eventually produce an audio version as well, and somehow a version with the slideshows.
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in purchasing one as a print, or to use in a print or internet publication.
Mist rises from the valleys, tinged pink with early sunset, after a thunderstorm rolled through in early evening.
Sometimes I find photos in the least expected places. This was at the top of an overgrown hill which had been graded to build a shopping center, to the left is Costco and right behind me is a huge parking lot and three-level mall. But I’d rather look at this.
Another rainy morning with just a little bit of sun creates a beautiful combination on the faces of two of the “day’s eyes”. Oh, the patterns in this simple little scene!
No melodramatic weather today, just a lot of rain and, glad for my garden and all the growing things around, I ran out to the street and leaped into the sudden stream running past my house.
I was waiting for a storm, but we only got a shower today. Still, all the green and growing things out there were happy for it, including this grass growing happily in my garden. Note the curled edges on a few of the blades.
I was going to post another snow photo, instead I decided to post this from last year…what a respite from summer heat, a rainy summer night, and a Dairy Queen with its white and primary colors promising cool, refreshing, happy bliss.
I love that good old-fashioned look of the Dairy Queen, primary colors, nice clear shapes, that late-50′s slight upward angle of t he roof and outward angle of the windows.
It rained last night, it was hot and humid, and the Dairy Queen beckoned from the dark in the middle of nowhere. The night was dreamy enough and the road dark enough that it almost seemed the DQ was an illusion, and either I’d pull in and it would turn into something else or disappear altogether, or it was a trap, a portal to another dimension and I’d enter some dramatic scenario, the heroine in danger but bravely saving herself and others from some hidden danger in this seemingly innocent place.
But I just enjoyed a medium vanilla with chocolate dip, really enjoyed it. It’s been a while. Maybe that’s why the DQ magically emerged.
I love to photograph scenes on rainy nights; visit my gallery At Night in the Rain—it’s older so the images are small, but they are full of magical colors and neon and puddles and streets.
Another rainy morning with just a little bit of sun creates a beautiful combination on the faces of two of the “day’s eyes”. Oh, the patterns in this simple little scene!
I have some catching up to do; I decided to slow down a little after Cookie passed. Now I’m remembering her, and ready to start posting daily images again, plus posting images from past years.
This post is really not about the gratuitous photo of Cookie reclining on my art table out on the deck one fine summer afternoon a few years ago, though I do fondly remember how often she accompanied me—no, she supervised me—wherever I was, demanding to be outside with me and promising to be good. This photo was with the original post in 2010.
In addition to Cookie, this post was one I published two years ago and it includes a poem I’d written and read that year at my annual poetry reading at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall entitled “Pawprints and Raindrops” and it actually features my other tortoiseshell kitty, Kelly.
This poem went on to be published in a variety of sites on the internet, and it also won both a Certificate of Excellence and Muse Medallion for poetry from the Cat Writer’s Association in 2010. Since I’m on a roll with practicing the recording of readings, I thought I’d record this one along with a slideshow of images. A link is after the poem, below.
Coming Spring poetry reading, 2010.
Thursday, February 18, 2010 was the date for “Coming Spring”, my fourth annual poetry reading and art exhibit at Andrew Carnegie Free Library & Music Hall in Carnegie, my home town. I featured 10 new poems and and the fourth and final painting of my “Art of the Watershed” series, “Spring Morning at a Bend in the Creek”, plus a display of favorite originals, prints and notecards; you can see the painting and read more about this event on my “What’s New?” blog.
My biggest inspiration for poetry, prose and artwork is the world right around me, and I enjoy the opportunity to share it from the perspective of one who walks and hikes and bikes and carries a camera, art materials and journal everywhere—even around the house—so the inspirations are fresh.
Looking at my body of work, this, of course, includes my cats, and my cats are vitally involved in the paintings and photos I create; even if they aren’t the subject, they are somehow physically involved with their creation by sitting on my lap, rolling pastels off my table, drinking watercolor rinse water and so on.
Most visitors to The Creative Cat are familiar with my feline paintings, but I haven’t published too much of my feline poetry. I read this poem at my reading this year, and sometime soon I’ll feature other poems as well, some of which have photos, paintings or illustrations to accompany.
About this poem…have you ever partly awakened and combined your sleepy thoughts with the reality of your surroundings? So I did one rainy morning in summer. As at least one of my kitties is always vigilant about me, my little tortoiseshell kitty Kelly realized that I was nearing waking probably before I did and came over to greet me, and with her help I slipped off into an illusion of dreamy contentment.
PAWPRINTS AND RAINDROPS
I am not awake but aware of the sound of raindrops whispering in the leaves and tapping on the roof in the early morning, still dark and little Kelly, sensing my awareness hurries over and steps on my back; I feel her tiny cold paws dimpling the surface of my skin as I drift off in the murmur of her purr and the rain I think of raindrops on water, I am the water, my skin the surface and I can look up and in the increasing daylight see the circular ripples of contentment mingling on my own surface.
I am grateful to the websites who published this poem and led to my winning the Certificate and Medallion. Pawprints and Raindrops and my painting “Sunday Morning” were featured on the award-winning The Daily Tail blog (now Taildom)! Please visit to read and enjoy, and also to read wide-ranging daily stories and images about cats, dogs, cows, birds, deer and just about anything else with fur or feathers…or scales…or…
This poem was also featured in Catnip Chronicles in April 2010, and this was the reference for which I won the award, so click over there to read it and then subscribe to this monthly online journal of all things cat!
I’ll have one more cat poem from 2010 tomorrow, but I’m not sure what I’ll use for the slideshow…
About my poetry and poetry readings
In December, 2006, two of my poems were chosen to be published on a section of the Prairie Home Companion website entitled “Stories From Home/First Person” for submissions of writing about the place we feel most familiar. ACFL&MH invited me to perform a poetry reading and to display the artwork that inspired those poems.
After each show I’ve built a web page with the poetry and art I featured. Please visit, read my poetry and view my artwork. My prior readings have been:
“Coming Spring” in 2010, featuring “Spring Comes to a Bend in the Creek”
In 2011 I published a small book of my poetry from these four readings entitled Paths I Have Walked. Right now it’s still available in print—read more about it on my Portraits of Animals Marketplace blog or order it from my website—but one of the reasons I keep reading these poems is to practice reading them for the audio version of this book. I am also preparing it for various e-readers.
I’ll have one more poem from this year tomorrow.
________________________
All images used on this site are copyrighted to Bernadette E. Kazmarski unless otherwise noted and may not be used without my written permission. Please ask if you are interested in purchasing one as a print, or to use in a print or internet publication.
