Color photo of a tree stump in a forest. The top is coated with pale green lichen, and more lichens, mosses, and small green woodland plants adorn the sides of the stump. This little green world is surrounded by dead leaves, twigs, and dried pine needles. Photo by M.D. Bird, 9 November 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine.

#micropoetryadvent #poetry #haiku #forest #OronoBogBoardwalk #Maine

For 1 December 2025:

Deep into autumn
when forests wear shrouds of gray,
small worlds keep faith

Color photo of tall meadow rue (Thalictrum pubescens) glowing softly in early morning light. The plant leans from the center top of frame toward lower left. Its small lobed leaves have faded to a pale cream color slightly tinged with green. The background is peatland forest floor with dried leaves, moss-covered log, and a few small green plants. Photo by M.D. Bird, 12 October 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine.

#micropoetry #haiku #poetry #plants #autumn #Maine
#OronoBogBoardwalk

For 16 October 2025;

In soft autumn light
a ghostly pale reminder:
Springtime merely sleeps

Close-up color photo of a deep dark hole in the base of a dead tree. The hole is surrounded by a velvety cushion of moss, ranging in color from dark to bright green. The tree trunk leans from lower right to upper left of frame. Mosses and tiny green woodland plants cover most of it. Glimpsed in the background is the peatland forest floor, with dried leaves and twigs, small green plants, and the edge of a pool left by earlier rains. Photo by M.D. Bird, 28 September 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine

#micropoetry #haiku #nature #OronoBogBoardwalk #Maine

For 15 October 2025:

When some small creature
sheltered here from summer heat,
did she dream of snow?

Color photo of a branch of a highbush blueberry (Vaccineum corymbosum) in autumn. Most of the lance-shaped leaves are deep scarlet, with veins of pink. Four leaves at the outer end of the branch still show some green. In the blurred background are other peatland plants in autumn shades of green, gold, brown, and red. Photo by M.D. Bird, 28 September 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine

#micropoetry #haiku #plants #nature #autumn #Maine #OronoBogBoardwalk

For 14 October 2025:

Every scarlet leaf
tells a tale of summer’s end
foretells winter joy

Color photo of a rotting log on the peatland forest floor. The log is positioned vertically in the center of the frame. It is gray and has pink bracket-type fungus spiraling from lower left to upper right. The upper third of the log is crusted with lichens. The bottom shows several splits with some interior wood spilling out, possibly shredded by small mammals hunting insects. The log is surrounded by mosses, dead leaves, dried pine needles, and twigs. Photo by M.D. Bird, 28 September 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine

#micropoetry #haiku #forests #moss #fungi #lichen #nature #Maine
#oronobogboardwalk

For 3 October 2025:

So many small worlds
in peaceful coexistence:
Dead tree parable

Color photo of bracken fern (Pteridium aquilinum) in early autumn. The feathery fronds are no longer the bright green of summer, but have turned a ghostly pale green against the forest floor. Dead leaves, twigs, and the edges of a few green plants are visible in the background. Photo by M.D. Bird, 28 September 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine.

#micropoetry #haiku #plants #ferns #nature #Maine #oronobogboardwalk

For 2 October 2025:

Summer’s pale green ghost
marks the path into autumn:
bracken fern’s farewell

Color photo of wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis) in autumn. The low-growing plant has three compound leaves emerging from its base. There are five ovate toothed leaflets on each leaf. Some of the leaflets are entirely a pale, dull brown, while others show bright yellow veins, glowing in early morning light. In the background is the peatland forest floor littered with dead leaves and twigs. A few other woodland plants are visible at the edges of the frame. Photo by M.D. Bird, 21 September 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine

#micropoetry #haiku #plants #nature #Maine #oronobogboardwalk

For 1 October 2025:

Autumn’s tarnished gold
lights the forest floor at dawn:
wild sarsaparilla

Color photo of a boardwalk leading out onto a northern peat bog. Thigh-high huckleberry shrubs blaze a brilliant red on either side of the boardwalk. Ahead lies the green of other bog shrubbery and sparse, stunted trees. The cloud cover seems to sag, heavy and gray overhead. Photo by M.D. Bird, 28 September 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine

#micropoetry #haiku #plants #nature #autumn #bog #oronobogboardwalk #Maine

For 29 September 2025:

Out along the boardwalk
huckleberries wear scarlet
greet fall with gusto

Color photo of winterberry (Ilex verticillata) in a sparse and sun-dappled woodland. The fruits are small, bright red spheres, some lit by the sun, others in shade. They are interspersed with dull green leaves along the branch of the shrub. Photo by M.D. Bird, 21 September 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine.

#micropoetry #haiku #plants #nature #oronobogboardwalk #Maine

For 28 September 2025:

These winterberries
will not last until snow flies —
Birds are hungry now

Color photo of an autumn-emerging spathe of skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus). The ghostly pale green shoot is wide at its base and opens into two halves, each narrowing to a tip and arching gracefully to the right of the frame. The surrounding forest floor is muddy and strewn with dried twigs, leaves, and pine needles amid bright green grasses. In early spring, heat generated by the skunk cabbage will melt snow cover, and a flower stalk will rise from this shoot. Photo by M.D. Bird, 15 September 2024, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine

#micropoetry #haiku #poetry #plants #nature #Maine #oronobogboardwalk

For 27 September 2025:

Autumn’s hardly here
and yet spring shows its promise:
skunk cabbage prepares

Color photo of the autumn foliage of a sugar maple tree (Acer saccharum). The leaves range in color from burnished gold to red-orange, against a bright blue sky. Some branches and a portion of the tree trunk are visible reaching up from lower left. Photo by M.D. Bird, 21 September 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine.

#micropoetry #haiku #trees #nature #autumn #oronobogboardwalk #Maine

For 26 September 2025:

We don’t speak of flames
with so many forests burnt,
yet bless maple’s blaze

Color photo of a cluster of cinnamon ferns (Osmundastrum cinnamomium), with glimpses of deep green woodland surrounding them. The fern fronds vary in color from pale gold to pinkish or rusty brown. Some are shadowed, some glow in early morning light. Photo by M.D.Bird, 15 September 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine

#micropoetry #haiku #autumn #nature #Maine #OronoBogBoardwalk

For 22 September 2025:

Summer slips away.
Where she has passed, gold glistens.
Autumn stirs, then wakes.

Orono bog

Rhododendron (syn. Ledum) groenlandicum (Labrador tea) in bloom

Kalmia polifolia (bog laurel)

Sphagnum lawn

A few from Orono Bog last month, one of my favorite places to geek out over plants! #maine #oronobogboardwalk #flowerreport

Close-up color photo of pink lady’s slipper orchid (Cypripedium acaule - white morph). Six white pouch-shaped blossoms hang from short upright green stems. At the base of the stems are broad green leaves. In front of the orchid is a small 4-petaled white blossom of bunchberry (Cornus canadensis). Other green forest floor plants surround the flowers. Photo by M.D. Bird 25 May 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine.

#micropoetry #haiku #plants #orchids #Maine #OronoBogBoardwalk

For 5 June 2025:

An hour past dawn
blossoms gleam their own pale light,
gently welcome day

Close-up color photo of a purple pitcher plant (Sarracenia purpurea). A spherical red flower bud atop a thick red stalk bends slightly toward the left of the frame. Three red pitcher-shaped leaves (one dried light brown at its tip) arise from the base of the plant and are visible just behind the bud, while red stalks of several other leaves can be seen reaching from the plant’s base toward right and left, out of the frame. The plant arises from a substrate of dried moss and grass. Photo by M.D. Bird, 25 May 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine.

#micropoetry #haiku #plants #bogs #Maine
#OronoBogBoardwalk

For 27 May 2025

Nourished by small things,
awakened from bog winter:
Ready now to bloom

Close-up color photo of unfurling fronds of a cinnamon fern (Osmundastrum cinnamomium). At the center of the photo, six pale green stems of varied heights emerge from the forest floor. Atop each stem is a tightly coiled fern leaf; thus, the term “fiddlehead”. The stems and fiddleheads are coated with soft, fine white hairs. The forest floor around the emerging fern is littered with twigs and last season’s dried plant material. Small patches of green moss can be seen at the base of the fern, as well as to its right, and beyond it to the upper left. Photo by M.D. Bird, 11 May 2025, Orono Bog Boardwalk, Maine.

#micropoetry #haiku #plants #ferns #oronobogboardwalk

For 24 May 2025:

Away from chaos,
coaxed by the birds’ dawn chorus
spring gently unfurls.

Hardbound book: “The Bog Walker’s Companion: A Guide to the Orono Bog Boardwalk”, edited by Jerry R. Longcore, James E. Bird, and Robert Klose. Published by the University of Maine Press, 2019. 160 pages. Dimensions: 10.5 x 7.5 x 0.75. An aerial view of the Caribou Bog and the Orono Bog Boardwalk fills the front of the dust jacket. The upper 20% of the image is pale blue sky with thin cloud on the right. The book’s title is printed across this section of the cover. Below it is a narrow treeline. The remainder of the image is the expanse of the bog, showing small trees, shrubs, smaller plants, and mosses in tones of brown and green, and a boardwalk curving from lower left toward the right then left again toward the treeline. A few people can be seen walking on the boardwalk and viewing the bog from an observation station. The editors’ names are printed across the bottom of the cover.

Choose 20 books that have stayed with you or influenced you.
One book per day for 20 days, in no particular order.
No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
Day 16
#booksky #books
#nature #ecology
#peatbogs #bogs
#Maine
#oronobogboardwalk
#universityofmaine

Pale sun glows through thin fog above a peat bog. On the horizon is a line of low trees: black spruce and tamarack. A boardwalk extends from the bottom of the photo toward the horizon, heading slightly toward the right, then veering sharply left as it approaches the treeline. Orono Bog Boardwalk photo by M.D. Bird, September 2024

#micropoetryadvent24
Poem for Day 4
#poetry
#nature
#bogs
#oronobogboardwalk

Early morning fog
burns off above the boardwalk
The bog is quiet

Tuesday trees: early one October morning at the Orono Bog Boardwalk in Maine
#nature #trees
#oronobogboardwalk
#maine