Very Interesting!

                            pixabay
(From MentalFloss.com) 

10 Medieval Words You Use Every Day

You probably say these words every day without realizing they were born in the Middle Ages.

  

 https://www.mentalfloss.com/language/words/medieval-words-use-every-day?utm_source=firefox-newtab-en-us

Yes! Autumn Poetry: A Collection for the Season has a new cover. It's an oil on canvas landscape painting titled, Autumn, Brandywine Valley, Pennsylvania, by American artist Bruce Crane - 1910. It's a softer image which I think fits the book a little better, and is from Wikimedia Commons. (Public Domain)

I'll be posting the Kindle version of my book for a Free download soon. I'll let you know the dates when I have them!

Tonight

evening fields of color

float up to the moon

shadows seam

into a gathering of green

charming the river

into a rhyme

of age-old words

whispered

into a thousand

dreams

 

Jan Darrow (Autumn Poetry: A Collection for the Season)

 

 

                   Photo- Pixabay 

Summer Solstice

sun devotion 

month of June

horses 

graze

across the moon

fields of corn

spark and rise

the longest day

roars

then dies.. 

 

2026 Jan Darrow

 

 

Probabilities

I tell you about

the stars and you name them

like numbers -

trigonometry I don't understand

or geometric probabilities of war.

 

The minutes move

from a day. Hours fall

like seconds

into a new paradigm shift.

 

Words spread across world history

written

the likes not seen

for centuries.

 

(c) Jan Darrow 2026

(Accepted by After/Thought Literary - but closed its doors before it could be published.) 

Dear Readers,

Ah! I don’t know where the time goes. Yes. I’m still here and writing! 

I wanted to let you know that After/Thought Literary let me know today that they are publishing two of my poems in their June issue. I’m thrilled! I will post the link when it’s up.

I hope you’re well and enjoying the weather! 

💛 Jan

 

House at Dusk

 

Upstairs a door is closing -

voices evaporate.

 

The heat of the day is gone.

 

Outside,

spent lilacs burnish color

onto panes of glass.

Trees spin darkness against the sky.

 

The garden is iridescent.

White clusters

of viburnum globes shimmer

in the filtering shadows.

 

The earth shifts.

Then, a gust of wind roars

through the trees.

 

Clouds move in

but not before the stars

begin to move across the sky.

They leave their pallor sails

to the wind

while a crisp white moon

is forever moored

to the tides.

 

First published by Poppy Road Review  

2025 Jan Darrow

 

van Gogh

This morning

I hang wheat fields

across the kitchen sky -

paper bright as stars.

 

In the afternoon

paint

slips through

my fingers

like gold.

 

Under a whisper of sun

contrasting images

become large

as flowers in a vase –

citrine faces adorned.

 

Tonight the moon cascades

across a starlight sky

filled with boats beneath

the dark hue

lamp lit

to the naked eye.

 

First published by Poppy Road Review 

2026 Jan Darrow  

                          Photo by Sylvia Medlen

Early spring in Michigan - capturing a deer, glistening spider webs, and fog. Simply ethereal!

I’m recommending two poems by Dane Karnick - Great Salt Lake, and Neighbors - which you can find on Poppy Road Review. Just click the link below. They’re awesome!

https://poppyroadreview.blogspot.com/2026/04/great-salt-lake-neighbors-by-dane.html

 

 Happy Easter! 🐇💜 Happy Spring!

 

Rainfall

 

We gather by the fire

and lose ourselves

in stories

told this night.

 

A storm rises from the flames.

Ghosts shadow the walls.

The earth turns.

 

Our expectations bloom

like stars in spring

pushing forth

new life.

 

 

 

from Winter Poems: Building Sound

Photo: Pixabay

Happy Valentine’s Day! 💗❤️💗

Manitoulin Island

A Keeper of Spirits

 One weekend in August many years ago

when we were very young 

 we rented a red Cadillac and drove to Manitoulin Island.

 Native people call it Manidoowaaling,"Cave of the Spirit."

And it has been sacred to the indigenous people of north America 

for more than 10,000 years.

 We drove up along Lake Huron on the Canadian side

 and disembarked from the ferry the next morning.

We found the island windblown. Maybe haunted -

except for a couple of tourist shops

that were curious sparkling gems of the past.

Inside one we found scraps of Danny Dodge.

A famous man widely covered in the press.

His death - possibly reckless.

Yellow newspapers rolled into plastic wrappers

telling a story not belonging to ten thousand years of sacred history.

As we drove on, the gray clouds let loose and soaked the goldenrod

growing alongside the silent roads spinning circles

out to the parameter of people that decades earlier had tried plowing

and planting. Then unable to grow anything of significance

that far up, got up and left their houses behind - 

 abandoned, empty, and ragged in that raw wet wind.  

 

2026 Jan Darrow  /  Photo: Paul James Meinke

 

Midwest Postcard

  

Tonight 

the dishes have been put away. 

Daylight fades.

I step onto the front porch

and smell rain coming. 

 

 I see clothes

 left outside on the line.

Shirts float 

like ghosts

in the evening breeze. 

 

 

2026 Jan Darrow

Photo: Pixabay 

The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono.  Originally published in 1954 in Vogue under the title, “The Man Who Planted Hope and Grew Happiness.” 

Dear Readers,

My mom gave me this book a long time ago, and I take it out from time to time to read and remind myself that what we do is important and that our actions matter. And…that there is hope. Yes I recommend! 

Jan ❤️ 

World Peace

watercolor - 2025 / Jan Darrow

In the Beginning

winter 

rises above a blue belly

and builds the frozen earth

rapidly.

Sky hues and pale rose

flesh autumn’s remains.

Spring is lost below the horizon.

White

inky snow

feeds the growth -

and we whirl away

into darkness.

Winter Poems: Building Sound - Available on Amazon

photo: pixabay

A Ghost Story for Christmas - THE SIGNAL-MAN

Written by Charles Dickens and published in 1866 in a Christmas edition of his magazine, All the Year Round, The Signal-Man is a ghost story - and who doesn’t love a good ghost story? This BBC production is perfect for a holiday winter evening. Yes I recommend! 

https://youtu.be/I89tiXorwBQ?si=dNQAZCA_WKvVcnJO

Turkeys

Coming home last Thursday I came upon a group of turkeys that (obviously) escaped Thanksgiving!