Pamela Leavey

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Category: Writing

Musings: The Golden Hour

From my nature writing journal, Fall 2015

I was sitting on the front porch reading and watching the half dozen crows that were making a raucous in the trees across the road. The crows cawed loudly. The squirrels scurried about. A blue jay screeched its name, “Jay, Jay,” in the distance. Fall was quietly descending a little every day. I could see a tinge of golden brown in the grasses on the other shore across the river. Gazing with a squint to better my focus my eyes, I realized there was a great blue heron slowly moving in the river grass along the shore, looking for its evening meal.

All of a sudden there was a riotous and rowdy clambering in the trees coming from the crows and then a crash followed by a great fluttering of black wings. It was late afternoon. “Surely, those crows were up to no good,” I thought to myself. (more…)

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Good Morning From The River

canadiangeese2

Yesterday morning as I sat at my desk, drinking my coffee and looking out on the Merrimack River, I welcomed the day with this post on my Facebook wall: (more…)

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A Carolina Wren Comes to Roost

Last night I just discovered a Carolina Wren sleeping under the eaves on my front porch. My first reaction was what the heck is that little brown thing up there in the corner? I have red squirrels, chipmunks and field mice around the yard. At first, I wasn’t sure if it was a little rodent or some other strange creature. Finally after peering out the door at it for a time, I opened the front door, went out and walked up underneath it. As I slowly, quietly walked up below it, I realized it was a little bird. It didn’t flinch a feather as I stood there a couple of feet beneath it, peering up at in the light of the porch lamp. After observing it from different angles and being certain I was not disturbing it in any way, I went inside and grabbed my camera to take some photos, because it looked so strange all puffed up there, roosting in the corner as it was.

little carolina wren sleeping in the porch eaves

I knew it was not a Sparrow and given the coloring, I thought it must be Wren of some sort. Checking my bird book, I determined it must be a Carolina Wren. My first instinct, once I realized it was a Wee Little Wren, a favorite bird of mine, was to take it down from the corner and hold the poor little creature in my hands to warm it up. It made me cold to see it up there roosting in the corner instead of in a warm nest or bird house somewhere. I myself was shivering from the chill in the air.

“Why was it not roosting in a bird house,” I questioned myself? “There are plenty of bird houses about in the yard,” I told myself.  “Perhaps it is new to the neighborhood, as I am,” I thought. Perhaps it is lost and sought shelter here on my front porch.  (more…)

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My Writing Life: Little Red Pays a Visit

I was hoping my move to the river a few weeks ago would provide me for good inspiration for my writing. It has taken me sometime to settle in to my new place and that has been a distraction from school, and of course my writing. The inspiration is starting to kick in, I am happy to say.

Writing has been my life and I’ve never fulfilled writing what I really wanted to write about so I am working on that now while I am working on BA at UMass Amherst University Without Walls where I am majoring in Creative Writing and Communication in the Digital Age.

I had a visitor to my front porch this morning. A little red squirrel who eventually started tearing into an old cushion on beat up wicker chair with a basket of fake forsythia in it. I grabbed the cameras. And then I grabbed my big 8.5″ x 11″ journal and started writing. I”ll take it… one page at a time.

Little Red Pays a Visit: (more…)

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Hot Running Tap

Delving through an unpublished manuscript of my poetry, I ran across this piece that hits home for me right now…


hot running tapHot Running Tap

Surely, had I looked
The other way,
I would have seen you coming;
The look in your eyes,
Your smile,
Your lines that flowed
Like a hot running tap.
But I, was too intrigued
By your fiery
Lingering glances.
And yet, somehow
I felt safe enough
To take my chances.
And now,
As the disenchantment sets in,
And I think to myself,
I will never
See you again;
I realize
Had I looked
The other way,
I would have seen
You coming,
And spared myself
Getting burned.

© Pamela J. Leavey (From my unpublished poetry manuscript: Rogue Lovers, Thieves Of My Heart, And Others)

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Quote of the Day: Clarissa Pinkola Estes

“One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it.” ~ Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

flood with light

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