Earlier in the week my kids and I spotted a Little Blue Heron and a Snowy White Egret peacefully swimming in a pond. What a treat for our morning drive. It inspired me to look for a poem about the heron, one of my favorite birds.
The Heron
The heron stands in water where the swampHas deepened to the blackness of a pool,
Or balances with one leg on a hump
Of marsh grass heaped above a musk-rat hole.
(read the rest here)
—Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)
On our drive yesterday we passed by the same pond. We stopped because there were not two birds but fifteen birds in the little pond and more flying in to join the party. It was an amazing sight. All these moments and Roethke inspired my own poem about these fascinating flyers.
Wetland Fowl
Your windmill size wings
whip back as you glide.
Disturbing the black
glass mirror you ride.
Seasonal colors
reflecting a view.
Offerings of autumn
do not disturb you.
Your stoic like stance
a motionless dance.
The minnows approach
but don't stand a chance.
4 comments:
I love that image of disturbing the 'black glass mirror', Betsy. What a treat to see all those birds. And I like "The long eye notes the minnow's hiding place." Poor minnows! I grew up being told that it was good luck for the day to see a heron-don't know why, just something we believed. Thanks for both poems & a bit of beauty for the day.
That must have been amazing - two mornings in a row to see the sights by the pond. Lucky you to have such a morning drive! I love the punch of that last line in the Roethke poem, and "Disturbing the black/ glass mirror you ride." in yours.
Betsy, I love the windmill wings and the black glass, which echoes someone else's offering of a black glass poem--who would have thought! Thanks for sharing this
How fun to find bits of Roethke in your poem!
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