Front Door Tulip

Planted three dozen bulbs and got three tulips! It must be better to put them in the ground rather than these bright large pots. Or maybe I waited until too late to plant. I know the daffodil bulbs were sold out. But this little bloom has lasted for several days, and might be enough. The afternoon was lovely and balmy (about 75 degrees) on the patio. I am studying this Olympus Pen Camera to see if I can learn to use it more effectively, and tried this tulip shot with it. I have the For Dummies book. Now what kind of poem might go with a tulip tonight?
In the late afternoon, the dark clouds slowly rolled in and there were those faint distant rumblings of thunder, and a fierce wind that made studying For Dummies books on the patio impracticable. After I went inside, just enough rain fell to dapple the cement. S was at Winco, and got rained on.

HARDWARE SPARROWS

Out for a deadbolt, light bulbs

and two-by-fours, I find a flock

of sparrows safe from hawks

and weather under the roof

of Lowe's amazing discount 

store. They skitter from the racks

of stockpiled posts and hoses

to a spill of winter birdseed

on the concrete floor. How

they know to forage here, 

I can't guess, but the automatic 

door is close enough,

and we've had a week 

of stprms. They are, after all,

ubiquitous, though poor, 

their only song an irritating

noise, adn yet they soar

to offer, amid hardware, rope

and handyman brochures,

some relief, as if a flurry

of notes from Mozart swirled

from seed to ceiling, entreating

us to set aside our evening

chores and take grace where

we find it, saying it is possible

even in this month of flood,

blackout and frustration,

to float once more on sheer

survival and the shadowy

bliss we exist to explore.

R. T. Smith, reprinted in The Poetry Home Repair Manual by Ted Kooser, pages 29-30.

This is in the chapter on the importance of titles and your first lines as you revise a poem.

Also notice that this poet, whose other work I do not know, has a great confidence in the comma, that little workhorse of literature. He even uses it where the linebreak might be expected to do the work. I also like his use of assonance and alliteration, which repays some study.
And so to bed, may you find all the spilled seed and poetry you need to sustain you! Good Night!