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Welcome to
For Random Learning Comes
Spring Edition!
Thanks for signing up for my newsletter. So happy, to welcome any new subscribers who took the time.
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Here in this special Spring Edition you will find my most flower-infused and herbaceous work. With any luck, it will put you in the mood for Spring. Below are links to 24 of my favorite Spring poems and posts.
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I am going to be taking a two week break from sending this newsletter till after Easter, so I hope front-ending this enormous collection will make up for this time of drought, so to speak.
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As we enjoy the shortest and best of all seasons in North Florida, I hope that, where ever you are, you take the time to enjoy the change of seasons. And whatever holiday--if any--you celebrate this time of year, may it be full of fun and family and/or friends and laughter.
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I'm always happy to see your comments in the comments section under each post, no matter how old the post. Interacting with my visitors is my favorite part of having a site like this! So please, don't be shy. To see what others have said, see my Comments & Compliments page.
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Enjoy and point your friends to the site if you like what you see! And as always, thanks for coming by to read.
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Spring Posts from
For Random
Learning Comes
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Spring Fashion
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It's spring in North Florida. By far, the finest season, but always far too short. Come enjoy my fabulous fashion show, and thanks for coming by to read! The mustard bolts. The land revolts. The weeds are in a dither. The pond slips on A yard of land, Grass floating yon and hither. And fuchsia dons Rhododendrons, …
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Wisteria's Fair Weather Friends
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{This is in response to Rochelle Wisoff-Field's Friday Fictioneers Prompt, pictured above. The task is to write a 100-word piece based on the photo. Thanks again for the prompt and for reading!} Gardening was her thing, not theirs. Never once planted a seed. Perhaps, purchased a potted plant. From Produce. And watched it wither and die. Negligent. Except their nails. "What …
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The Enclosed Garden
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{This poem is in the style of "The Owl and the Pussycat" or "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat," both in rhyme scheme and in the unlikely pairings. This was obviously suggested to me, by my daughter Madelaine LeDew's beautiful print. Her own artwork was at least partially inspired, by a line from the the Song of Solomon 4:12 …
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Pebbledash
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{This poem was written while my father was hospitalized in the North Carolina Mountains. Pebbledash is a building material in which pebbles are inserted into plaster. Thank you for stopping by and for forgiving my inevitable absence from these pages during this rocky time. } The rock on which I found my life; The spring from which I drew Soul's sustenance; …
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Garden Come Summer
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We've had a few last, precious days of spring recently, in Florida. That only serves to remind us of the dreadful, thick, humid heat ahead. The spring plants seem to reflect this sentiment, and lose all motivation this time of year. Hope you will enjoy this poem, describing our sorry plight. Thanks for reading! They’re dying all. They’re dying all. …
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Spring Forward
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Spring. This is the time of year, even in the coldest climate, when your thoughts turn to gardens. You may not, necessarily, spend a lot of time thinking about the work of gardening: the clearing of the spent beds, the weeding, the digging, the planting, the fertilizing, the mulching. But you do relish and long for the pleasures of being …
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The Secret Garden
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We are having a rare bout of cold weather in North Florida. And when I say “cold”, I am not using the regional definition, that is, anything under 60 degrees Fahrenheit. I am talking twenties and thirties here. Snow was reported. I had to scrape frost off my car. Such things are not common around these parts. What better time, …
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Make Hay While the Sun Shines
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The title may be cliche, but I can think of nothing truer about homeschooling. You have to grab the opportunities (for learning) as they come. And man, they are coming fast and furious! I am, of course, referring to our new President and everything that has occurred in this past year or two. I know I am about to step …
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Cicadas
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I'm sure many of you hear the cicadas every night and well into the daytime, this time of year. For those of you who aren't on such familiar terms with these insects, they are large, mostly invisible singing creatures who live in the trees and their combined chorus can be be almost deafening. When they are silent, you know …
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Turf War
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This poem began when I noticed the roses budding up again, most aggressively. And in unison. Ready for all out war. Hope you enjoy it! Thanks for coming by! They come in gangs, the roses. They claw, and bite, and scratch. Their bolls, like bitten fingernails, Will grab what they can catch. The bush lies green and …
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Quarantine
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I came up with this poem after spending the afternoon yesterday in the Emergency Room, seeking to admit my husband who had COVID symptoms. As a family member of someone who has tested positive, I have to quarantine as well and remain vigilant to symptoms. Fingers crossed, all will be well. We have all heard much in the news …
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Provincial
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This poem is a response to the photo prompt above from Friday Fictioneers. It is also influenced by recent events: the killing of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police, and the resultant furor in the streets. This poem made me think of a white suburbanite, busy with her own life and only barely aware of what is …
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Compost
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{I wrote this poem after visiting the compost pile and adding several handfuls of shredded documents, to top off the orange rinds, coffee grounds and bits of brown lettuce. Life is teeming, in the moist soil-in-the-making beneath. Like many of you, I have been trying to clean house during these long, dull days of Coronavirus quarantine, and a shredder …
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Clutter
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A wooden box. A campfire. A ten-foot-long canoe. A teacup, With a cloud of steam. Reminding me Of you. A wooden box. A slide rule. A cabin with a view. A sleeping bag. A canvas tent. A peeling birch or two. A wooden box. A dog leash. An email, in all caps. A notebook, full Of digits. …
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The Brothers Grim
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{This is a response to What Pegman Saw an international story collection focussed on a different part of the world each week. This week we are in Riga, Latvia, in Northern Europe. The name of the monk, Dievmilis, means God-loving in Latvian. Hope you enjoy my somewhat less than original tale! Thanks for the prompt and thank you for stopping …
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Pebbledash
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{This poem was written while my father was hospitalized in the North Carolina Mountains. Pebbledash is a building material in which pebbles are inserted into plaster. Thank you for stopping by and for forgiving my inevitable absence from these pages during this rocky time. } The rock on which I found my life; The spring from which I drew Soul's sustenance; …
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Deadly Sins
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{This is a response to a prompt from Friday Fictioneers. It is a 100-word challenge, to write something inspired by the picture. This picture looked to me like a monastery. And having watched every episode I could get, of Cadfael , the gardening monk, not too long ago, I had to drag gardening into my story. I'm so excited that …
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Mozart’s Garden
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{This is a response to Friday Fictioneers, a 100-word photo prompt. Pianos remind me of Mozart and the Mozartfest in Wuerzburg, Germany, which takes place every summer in a lovely garden, the Residenz Hofgarten. Constanze is Mozart's wife's name, which I anglicized. In the movie, "Amadeus" (one of my favorites,) she is a very persistent person, indeed. …
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Of Roses
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{This is a response to a prompt from What Pegman Saw. Today we are visiting the island of St Helena, to which Napoleon was sent in exile, after his defeat at Waterloo. Having just watched the new edition of Vanity Fair on Amazon Prime, I was very much in the mood for a Napoleonic saga (War and Peace ain't half …
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Spring Forward
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Spring. This is the time of year, even in the coldest climate, when your thoughts turn to gardens. You may not, necessarily, spend a lot of time thinking about the work of gardening: the clearing of the spent beds, the weeding, the digging, the planting, the fertilizing, the mulching. But you do relish and long for the pleasures of being …
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River of Grass
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This essay was first published in early 2018, the day after the Parkland massacre in South Florida. A young man returned to his high school --named after Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, the author of River of Grass, a scientific love song to the Florida Everglades. He then proceeded to open fire, killing seventeen students. With all the chants of "Drain …
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The Secret Garden
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We are having a rare bout of cold weather in North Florida. And when I say “cold”, I am not using the regional definition, that is, anything under 60 degrees Fahrenheit. I am talking twenties and thirties here. Snow was reported. I had to scrape frost off my car. Such things are not common around these parts. What better time, …
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The Seed Leaf (Poem)
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Once, a plant in my garden Had your name on it. An ordinary plant, Philodendron or some such. My children grew alongside And tended it. My first even learned its name, Its real name, Its Latin name. It gradually was crowded out, By roses with spike-thorns, and gingers, By lilies, rain- and toad-, By blue daze and euphorbia And …
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Our Stems Are Fragile
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Credit print in photo Madelaine LeDew This essay briefly tells the tale of our family's introduction to the world of disability, in the context of our homeschool routines and spaces. Thank you for coming by to read and comment, and please sign up for the newsletter below, for a weekly dose of For Random Learning Comes! Ye Olde Kitchen Table …
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