Ellie Marie Johnson 🍁
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elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Ellie Marie Johnson 🍁
@elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
250 followers 560 following 68 posts
#poetry #pnw #poems

I enjoy poetry, design, illustration, and the outdoors. I love sharing haiku, tanka, and other forms of micropoetry with you. 🌸
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elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
On this day in history, Ruby Bridges integrated a previously all-white school. I wanted to share a powerful poem by 16-year-old Joyce Brown, a teacher at a bombed freedom school in 1964: www.crmvet.org/poetry/pbrow...
"But I'll do my work if I have to do it on the ground"

#poetry #reading #history
Ruby Bridges walking down steps with U.S. Marshals in 1960. She had to be escorted to and from William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans.
November 14, 2025 at 8:15 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Even if the shutdown ends, many in the U.S. will still be recovering and struggling after losing SNAP. Even a small amount can help: www.givedirectly.org
🍎 More tips: bsky.app/profile/elli...
#haiku #SNAP #shutdown #poetry #drawing #blueskypoets #originalpoetry #poetrycommunity #writing #aid #poem
Drawing of a cross-hatched falling apple in light grey on a cream white background. Above is the haiku: no more honeycrisps fall from late autumn branches bare shelves at food banks.
November 12, 2025 at 7:53 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
cloud front
tore off sky's edge
winds in convergence zone
gold leaf sun past the Olympics—
resolve.

🌊 #cinquain (follows a 2-4-6-8-2 syllable pattern) #poetry #originalpoetry #blueskypoetry #micropoetry #blueskypoets #writing #nature #photography #ocean #PNW
The Puget Sound, with a dark grey encroaching cloud front forming a line near the edge of the sky—as if a ripped photo. The exposed sky is a soft cream color. Driftwood rests on the sandy shore mixed with a cobble beach and seaweed. Above the bright ocean waves lies the Olympic mountain range in the distance, with a gold lining of sun.
November 10, 2025 at 8:17 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
A few resources in hard times 💙

Directory for Local Food Banks: www.feedingamerica.org
Formula Exchange: freeformula.exchange/home
Find a Local Backpack Program (Meals for Schoolkids): www.feedingamerica.org/our-work/hun...

#snap #food #mutualaid #snapbenefits #foodstamps #shutdown #hunger #aid
A graphic with the title "How to Help One Another - Tips for Fighting Food Insecurity." Colored icons show a credit card, a red aid hat, a baby bottle, and a plate of pasta. Suggestions: Cash donations are most effective because food banks buy in bulk at a discount. Donate to a food bank and find out if your employer will match it. Volunteer with food banks or mutual aid groups, and ask what help they need. Consider getting a grocery buddy, and assist your neighbors. Fund or give children and baby’s items, like formula. 39 percent of SNAP recipients are children. See if your local school may have a backpack meal program. Contact local businesses and restaurants to ask how they can help—such as with food drives, free and discounted meals, donations, or other alternatives.
November 8, 2025 at 1:45 AM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
New York poet Adelaide Crapsey invented a cinquain, which follows a 2-4-6-8-2 syllable structure.

November Night

Listen…
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees
And fall.

#cinquain #poetry #poetrycommunity #readingcommunity
Black and white portrait photo of Adelaide Crapsey sitting with her hands on her lap, wearing a long sleeve top embroidered with leaves.
November 6, 2025 at 12:43 AM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
On All Hallows' Eve,
tea lights flare from pumpkin teeth;
ward off Stingy Jack.

🎃 #haiku #Halloween #pumpkin #photography #nature #poetry #writing #poem #poetrycommunity #originalpoetry
Two Jack O'Lanterns smiling and glowing side-by-side in the darkness, lit by tea light candles.
November 1, 2025 at 4:02 AM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Gold stipples green trees,
our changes in pointillism;
brown iris — life's brush . . .
Let time layer us with light;
this series of autumn walks . . .

#tanka #poetry #micropoetry #poem #nature #autumnleaves #fallcolors #trees #photography #originalpoetry #blueskypoetry
Vibrant layers of gold and green leaves seen from below, with sunlight shining through.
October 30, 2025 at 1:21 AM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Fate flips the faucet
on bikes without bumbershoots —
gloves of yellow leaves
keep us dry —scrubbing away
gloom despite squeaks of thunder.

#poetry #poem #pnw #trail #forest #TreeTuesday #river #photography #nature #originalpoetry #blueskypoetry #autumn #fall #tanka #micropoetry #landscape
Autumn day at Burke-Gilman under storm clouds. Yellow-green leaves overhang the Sammamish River and the trail.
October 28, 2025 at 11:11 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Teardrops cling to twigs,
begging not to slide, falling
into blue freedom.

#haiku #poetry #autumnleaves #photography #micropoetry #maplemonday #poems #nature #writing #originalpoetry #blueskypoetry
Red maple leaves against a blue sky and an evergreen tree, with droplets of dew dangling on bright crimson twigs.
October 27, 2025 at 7:00 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Wild mushrooms burnish
tables—gathering despite
decay; their lives capped.

#haiku #poetry #micropoetry #shroomscroll #fungifriday #fungi #writing #autumn #fungifriends #photography #poetrycommunity #nature #poem #blueskypoetry
Mushrooms with glossy brown surfaces on wet grass and clover. A small mushroom is decaying beside a larger shroom.
October 25, 2025 at 12:09 AM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
We shriveled for you . . .
We know you longed for dark notes —
thorns took reaching arms.
We give late fall—stained glass leaves,
pipe organs of cricket song.

#micropoetry #tanka #poetry #poetrycommunity #reading #photography #nature #forest #fall #autumn #blueskypoetry @blueskypoetry.bsky.social
A bundle of wrinkled, withered blackberries on a bush with a few curled dead leaves. The background is full of fresh green leaves.
October 21, 2025 at 5:08 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
I love "Diwali" by Vikram Seth. 🕯️This fascinating epic is full of history and incredible detail:
poetryarchive.org/poem/diwali/

More on Vikram Seth's prolific poetry, novels, activism, and awards:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vikram_...
#Diwali #VikramSeth #poetry #candle #FestivalofLights #reading #epic
Two diyas sharing a flame in the dark. Image credit: Sonika Agarwal.
October 20, 2025 at 5:30 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
When Mórrígan's crow
perches on power—no lines
of least resistance.

#poetrycommunity #haiku #resistance #courage #resist #poetry #blueskypoetry #photography
A crow cawing from power lines against dark clouds, with a streak of light above. Crow's feet do not offer a path of least resistance for electricity to travel through, thus avoiding an electric shock.
October 18, 2025 at 6:23 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Black Locust lures bats . . .
Invasive, laced finger roots
snare Persephone —
tiny words trap wings, a slow
death in pomegranate seeds.

#poetry #poem #tanka #mythology #autumn #fall #poetrycommunity #reading #unhealthyrelationships #mentalhealth #photography #forests #ForestFriday #blueskypoetry
Twisted roots of a Black Locust tree on a trail at a local park. The tree's bark and leaves are poisonous to animals and humans. Bats (often a symbol of the Underworld and Persephone) will sometimes make homes in Black Locusts.
October 17, 2025 at 11:07 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Iridescent leaves
scatter from prisms—we quit
our old, storm-swatch house . . .
past grief, an opal fractured—
palette split from clouds, revealed.

#autumnleaves #fall #tanka #micropoetry #poetry #poem #moving #poetrycommunity #reading #pnw #photography #blueskypoetry @blueskypoetry.bsky.social
A rainbow of maple leaf branches against a cloudy, autumn sky. I took this photo in the Seattle area on a walk after our move.
October 16, 2025 at 9:40 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Poets act as "Dream Keepers" according to Langston Hughes, 1926.

Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamers.
Bring me all of your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too rough fingers
Of the world.

#poetry #reading #poetrycommunity #readingcommunity
A black and white photo of Langston Hughes in a suit from 1923. He would write "Dream Keepers" in two years, and it would be published in "The Weary Blues" in 1926.
October 16, 2025 at 3:07 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
A than-bauk (also သံပေါက် or thanbauk) is a Burmese poem that tends to be witty in nature – it contains three lines with four syllables each. The As are rhyming syllables.

xxxA
xxAx
xAxx

#poetry #micropoetry #blueskypoetry #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity #writingprompt #prompt #poetryprompt
Three hot air balloons in pale orange sky over pagodas in Burma/Myanmar. Image credit: roman raizen.
October 13, 2025 at 5:36 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Orb weaver swallows
frayed light in last autumn's silk - 
fresh web over shade.

#haiku #spider #spidersky #poetry #micropoetry #nature #bluesky #orbweaver #autumn #photography #poem #web #spiderweb #blueskypoetry #arachnid #pnw
@blueskypoetry.bsky.social
Orb weaver spider on a glistening web in a shaded shrub at a local park. Old silk is often eaten and repurposed.
October 12, 2025 at 7:11 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
A witch house must have
ladders of lichen, sewel
feathers to scare bucks
who slash songbird trees —let us
raise walls for rain chorus spells.

#witch #poetry #pnw #PNWonderland #ForestFriday #blueskypoetry #micropoetry #tanka #nature #photography #women #forest #poem
@blueskypoetry.bsky.social
A forest with low-hanging branches covered in lichen, a wet wooden birdhouse nailed to one of the trunks.
October 11, 2025 at 12:05 AM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Oh purple dragon
leaflings; we want assurance
one raised bed remains . . . 
openings in communities
of calendula castles.

#writing #poetry #poem #garden #flowers #bloomscroll #nature #blueskypoetry #tanka #poem #writingcommunity #poetrycommunity #micropoetry @blueskypoetry.bsky.social
Bright orange calendula in a local community garden beside smaller purple stemmed leafy plants. The tip of a brown boot appears in the bottom right.
October 9, 2025 at 1:45 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
A sliced blood orange
spirit in two halves; maple 
leaf mounds and rose sky.

#autumn #fall #October #TreeTuesday #tree #haiku #micropoetry #poetry #poem #AutumnLeaves #photography #nature #writing @blueskypoetry.bsky.social
A fiery red maple beside a neighborhood sidewalk under rose clouds. A small ghost dangles from a branch.
October 7, 2025 at 8:53 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
A sijo is a Korean poem originating in the 14th century, with 3-6 lines. (44-46 syllables total.)

Yun Seon-do endured banishment for criticizing the ruling Joseon court. Some poetry is timeless.

#poetry #poem #sijo #korean #history #river #sunday #weekend #nature #wisdom #micropoetry #reading
A photo I took of the Wenatchee River, near the shore with soft sand and bright green shrubbery and trees. In the center is a partially transparent black overlay with paper white serif text in the middle. The text reads: Morning mist rises / from the river where I cast / my line for wisdom Politicians argue / in distant halls of power / while fish swim freely Who needs their golden / promises when water / teaches truth daily Yun Seon-do
October 5, 2025 at 3:38 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
A stump pried from pines,
presenting an artist’s shelf.
Winds left a canvas.

#nature #ForestFriday #forest #pnw #haiku #haikupoetry
A photo I took of a forest in the Pacific Northwest, with tall pines, vivid green undergrowth, and shelf fungi coming out of a stump.
October 3, 2025 at 9:00 PM
elliemariejohnson.bsky.social
Happy Poetry Day to those across the pond 🌿

"...the late year

Hammers her rare and
Various metals."

Sylvia Plath, 1959 - Dark Wood, Dark Water.

#poetry #nature #poem #autumn
Sylvia Plath poem on a book page beneath pine fronds, reading: Dark Wood, Dark Water This wood burns a dark Incense. Pale moss drips In elbow-scarves, beards From the archaic Bones of the great trees Blue mists move over A lake thick with fish. Snails scroll the border Of the glazed water With coils of ram's horn. Out in the open Down there the late year Hammers her rare and Various metals. Old pewter roots twist Up from the jet-backed Mirror of water And while the air's clear Hourglass sifts a Drift of goldpieces Bright waterlights are Sliding their quoits one After the other Down boles of the fir.
October 2, 2025 at 11:46 PM