Tweetspeak Poetry

  • Home
  • FREE prompts
  • Earth Song
  • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Books, Etc.
  • Patron Love

Postcards from Burrow & Meadow · No. 2 Staying

By Bethany Rohde 8 Comments

Greetings From Burrow & Meadow postcard


Hello again,

Caught any sights of comfort lately? Please do feel free to share. Saturday, I found myself inside a scene and wished to stay. Decided to tuck it into a prose poem.

Padding through Skagit Valley meadowland. Scent of damp sod. Salish Sea breeze cooling my fingertips. Sedges swaying, a dark ringlet of my daughter’s hair bobbing, and the mounds of blue hills quieting me from miles away. Above it all, Mt. Baker burning white with snow. But today, I’m not drawn to what’s highest (or lowest) but to what surrounds me. Those powder-blue hills are grandparents of a grown grandchild, wrapping around me from a distance, I’m encircled in their silent waves. As the sun lowers, they show me what’s possible — what it means for edges to be smoothed — their slopes turning cornflower, smoke-blue, periwinkle. The way they cup my seen world — their hush.

Warmly,
Bethany


Photo by Jan Vanaberbeke, Creative Commons license via Flickr (postcard design by Will Willingham). Postcard text by Bethany Rohde.

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Bethany Rohde
Bethany Rohde
Bethany Rohde's poetry and prose may be found in such places as: Mothers Always Write, Every Day Poems, and the e-book, Casual, published by T.S. Poetry Press. If she could spend her coffee break anywhere in the world, it would be in the imagined place she used to draw as a kid (and still does). She'd lean back against the smooth trunk of a shade tree surrounded by undulating, grassy hills and watch the sway and flow of the blades.
Bethany Rohde
Latest posts by Bethany Rohde (see all)
  • Postcards from Burrow & Meadow · No. 4 Seeing - February 16, 2023
  • Postcards from Burrow & Meadow · No. 3 Listening - February 10, 2022
  • Postcards from Burrow & Meadow · No. 2 Staying - May 13, 2021

Filed Under: Blog, Postcards from Burrow & Meadow

Try Every Day Poems...

About Bethany Rohde

Bethany Rohde's poetry and prose may be found in such places as: Mothers Always Write, Every Day Poems, and the e-book, Casual, published by T.S. Poetry Press. If she could spend her coffee break anywhere in the world, it would be in the imagined place she used to draw as a kid (and still does). She'd lean back against the smooth trunk of a shade tree surrounded by undulating, grassy hills and watch the sway and flow of the blades.

Comments

  1. L.L. Barkat says

    May 13, 2021 at 10:49 am

    I love all the soft “s” sounds in this, accompanied by “b” and “d” and “l” sounds.

    It all makes it very lush and soothing.

    Lovely images, too. Thank you, Bethany! 🙂

    Reply
  2. Bethany Rohde says

    May 13, 2021 at 11:43 am

    Oh, thank you for this, L.L. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Sandra Heska King says

    May 14, 2021 at 7:45 am

    Ooohhh… this is very comforting. And beautiful.

    I especially liked “Mt. Baker burning white with snow.”

    And “The way they cup my seen world — their hush” made this line from the Carpenters’ song “There’s a kind of hush all over the world” pop into my head. I, too, love all the “s” sounds. Very hush-full. Also, it makes me want to visit.

    Reply
    • Bethany Rohde says

      May 14, 2021 at 11:16 am

      Sandra, thank you for this. I’m so glad this brought you a little comfort. 🙂

      Reply
  4. Charity Singleton Craig says

    May 14, 2021 at 9:14 am

    I love the image of not looking up or down but around, to “what surrounds me.” This is lovely, Bethany.

    Reply
    • Bethany Rohde says

      May 14, 2021 at 11:18 am

      Charity, thank you! I’m glad you liked that line. I actually added it in my last revision because it was something I kept feeling but hadn’t articulated in the poem’s previous versions. Appreciate you reading and letting me know your thoughts.

      Reply
  5. Laurie Klein says

    December 31, 2021 at 12:29 pm

    “what it means for edges to be smoothed”

    Oh my. What a line to read on this, the last day of the year. Gonna carry this hope with me, in the spirit of your closing line (which, for me, simultaneously holds and opens):

    “The way they cup my seen world — their hush.”

    Reply
    • Bethany Rohde says

      January 1, 2022 at 2:52 pm

      Dear Laurie,

      Thank you for sharing your insights here. I love what you noted about simultaneously holding and opening there. As we start this new year, I’m encouraged by your willingness to carry hope forward.

      Warmly,
      Bethany

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our May Menu

Patron Love

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world poetic.

The Graphic Novel

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

meet The Yellow Wallpaper characters

How to Write Poetry

Your Comments

  • Glynn on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Sandra Fox Murphy on World War II Had Its Poets, Too
  • Glynn on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”
  • Bethany R. on Poets and Poems: Kelly Belmonte and “The Mother of All Words”

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Stay in Touch With Us

Categories

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

Explore Work From Black Poets

About Us

  • • A Blessing for Writers
  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions
  • • The Write to Poetry

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems—Subscribe! ✨
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poet-a-Day
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • 50 States Projects
  • • Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems Library
  • • Edgar Allan Poe Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2025 Tweetspeak Poetry · FAQ, Disclosure & Privacy Policy