Puccini - Coffeeshop Writers Group / Poem: Pennypack where Indians Once Tread

Pennypack Trust, 800 acres of land in Huntingdon Valley, PA.

I wanted to load a YouTube video of Luciano Pavarotti singing the beautiful Nessun Dorma from Puccini's opera Turandot. It was on my car radio and is soaringly beautiful.

Click here to listen to the aria for three minutes.

Nessun dorma means "None shall sleep." Goose bumps everywhere on this mortal body of mine.

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High quality work at our Writer's Group today. Let's see. Beatriz brought in an essay on the Viburnam leaf beetle. He's made his first appearance in Montgomery and Bucks County. And if you have the beautiful shrub Viburnum, watch out, baby. It'll eat the leaves and within several years the bush will be destroyed.

Here's an email I sent the group afterward.

Welcome Ian! You have quite a talent there. Glad you came today.

And Martha, you did so well with your first poem!

Sorry Donna couldn't make it. Donna let us know if you were perhaps at a baby shower?

If so, you would've enjoyed Carly's poem called The Shower.

My emails to Kym end up in her junk file so I'll send her a message on Facebook.

Mary, that was great you printed out The Ache for us to see. Give Garland a big hug for all of
us now that she's got her harness off.

Beatriz, good luck with your Patch blog. Very timely subject. Fortunately I have no Viburnum. What a story. My favorite part is when the larvae bury themselves underground and grow
into full-fledged beetles. Read about the beetles on her blog.

Linda very interesting story! Thanks also for sharing your 9/11 poem:

SEPTEMBER 11, 2011

Angry birds fly into twin towers,

Out of the rubble,

flags rise up

like star spangled flowers

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Last nite boyfriend Scott and I went for a walk at Pennypack Trust. This park is 7 minutes away from home. We saw many wonderful things. After I got home, I thought, Hey, I'll write a poem about our trip and present it tomro at the Writer's Group.

As usual, I tricked myself into writing it. I wanted to watch Charlie Rose at midnite, so I told myself, you've gotta write your first draft by midnite.

At 12:10 I watched Charlie Rose. Simon Schama was the guest. He talked too fast for this tired viewer, plus I wanted to think about my poem.

PENNYPACK WHERE INDIANS ONCE TREAD

Pennypack Ecological Restoration Trust consists of over 800 acres in Huntingdon Valley, PA.

Note: Reynard is French for fox.

Pennypack, will you trust us with
your secrets?
Will you open your arms on
this twilight of perfection:
Let us view your
intimate stories.
It’s not violence we seek
we hear that in our own
backyards when
Reynard is about
he likes his meat raw
and dines at night
with bloody knife and fork.

Our timing is perfect.
There! A stag with antlers
Shhhh! Won’t you learn to
whisper?
I never learned how, he said.
Well, breathe out on the letter H
and take it from there.

Not one but two, you say in your
soft masculine unwhisper
as they tear apart foliage
at speeds rivaling a Porsche
Naive, we have never seen
antlers or stags so close
and stare at this quick
unexpected gift

Pennypack, you are kind to
these Intruders.

A mother deer
cautions her kindergartners
that the Beasts are here
bounds in front of us
as
one, two, three graceful
pupils, white tails held high
follow orders without question
leaving us sad and alone
in the wilderness.

I have never been
face to face with a woodchuck.
Our yard boasts Luciano
a fertile father who lives
beneath the shed and
helps mow the grass

But now
on the acreage known as
Pennypack we see – is he
kin to our Lucci? –
a nice fat furred one
so cute you want to
sit him on your lap
and plunge your hands
into his frenzy of fur
when suddenly he breaks
from dinner to stare at us

Has he smelled us?
- my man smells of onions and aftershave
I smell of shampoo and pastrami -
and meets us eye to eye
for a few seconds of heaven
a gentle, forgiving face
the kindest I have ever seen.

A train whistle pierces the miles
My Pocahontas braids fall off
I seek the sky
and remember I'm an American girl
no longer bride of the Pennypack.

PS - I went back to Pennypack next day to buy some native plants. I learned from David Robertson, the director, that there was a bow & arrow hunt on the premises to thin the population of the deer. The deer I saw the day before. I'm all in favor of this, but it really affected me this time.

The slain deer are taken to a butcher shop in nearby Bryn Athyn and prepared as meat. The venison is then stored in the freezer and people can purchase it, carnivores that we are.