As promised, today’s quote has been bumped up the list to correspond with the poem I wrote yesterday—one of the perks of running the challenge. We often see deer at the bottom near the stream or along the hedge to the west, but yesterday, a young male deer trotted right under the window of the study. I felt honoured. They are timid, keep well away from houses and usually bolt at the slightest sound or movement. He must have felt he had nothing to fear from us.
I’m linking this to the dverse open link night because I like it.
From ‘He Mourns for the Change That Has Come Upon Him and Longs for the End of the World’
‘Do you not hear me calling, white deer with no horns?’—W.B. Yeats
The deer in the meadow
In the mists of early morning,
The frost lay on the ground,
And the songbirds in the garden
Flew by without a sound.
As I watched the mist light swirling
On the meadow, frosty pale,
A deer, horns newly budded,
Stepped through the broken veil.
He stepped across the meadow,
His ears he turned to hear,
If the sound of my sighing,
Was a sound that he should fear.
He stepped up to my window,
With eyes so wild and deep,
As the sea that covers your bed,
Leaving me alone to weep.
So sadly beautiful, Jane. And what magic to have him come right up to your window!
It was a gift 🙂
Yes what magic! The words sing. (K)
There is a tune in there. Usually is a tune in my head when I write like this.
I can hear you singing it as you wander from room to room! It’s so tender and that last line just pulls on the heart. All that we love- bravo!
I’m glad you can hear it 🙂
I was a little creative/cheeky adapting to the quote!
https://deuxiemepeau.blog/2017/11/16/regarding-reflections-day-16-of-a-month-with-yeats/
I thought I saw the allusion, and your adaptation worked well 🙂
He must have thought you are a vegan.
He certainly has never heard gun shots from our place. Quite a haven really 🙂
I wish I could have said the same about my old country.
My poem is ready in my head based on your hint yesterday. Now I have to fine tune it to capture the mood of the quote. A storm is raging outside. If the rain continues then no morning walk and I may not have to wait till lunch time to write.
A stormy background could help with the mood?
But a walk on the rain dampened it. Could not delay taking out my four legged buddy for his morning rituals as the alternative would have been cleaning up his odoriferous mess. Unfortunately he did take his time sniffing in the rain😭
Dog walking (I’m assuming it’s a dog and not a giraffe or wolverine or anything) in the rain is never pleasant. I’m lucky in having a dog who hates getting wet as much as I do.
My dog Skooby, unless it is an accident ( though my wife will like to think that it is his way of punishing us for leaving him alone)will never go in the house or our yard.
Finbar won’t either. But he’d rather cross his legs until the rain stops than go outside.
Skooby does not like water, he runs away from a bath. Never tried to get into the pool, but he does not mind the California rain ( it’s actually a drizzle compared to the monsoon that I grew up with).
I never expect a dog to want to do something I hate. Rain, cold, I’d stay inside too.
His Master’s Choice.☺
🙂
Back to darkness…
https://rivrvlogr.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/rise/
Lovely Jane. Simply, lovely. ❤
Thanks Kat 🙂
wonderful! 🙂
https://ladyleemanilablog.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/a-month-with-yeats-day-sixteen/
Thank you!
A Monckjac deer ran across our front lawn last year and last month I saw a huge Stag Roe deer run across the field while I was walking the dog. Sadly so many houses have been built where the deer have had their runs for centuries. So sad.
We edge them out, build over their land that they manage to share with everything else, then we say we have to ‘cull’ them because there are too many of them!
I know it is the way of all original creatures and people’s!!
Original or egocentric?
Not sure
I have a good idea.
…deer with no horns…made me think of women and suffragettes of course…so say the marbles in my head. 🙂
https://katmyrman.com/2017/11/16/r-e-s-p-e-c-t/
I think your brain is just wired up that way 🙂
Yes. I’m afraid it is!
🙂
Short link for my poem today : https://wp.me/p73yZZ-3V0
To uplift my mood in this cold rainy day, I needed to be little frivolous. My apologies to Yeats’ ghost.
This is lovely Jane. No wonder you like it. a fitting tribute to Willie Yates. There is mos def music in this….it reads like a ballad.
Thanks Toni 🙂 I hear the tune to ‘She moved through the fair’ to this one.
Nice tune. It fits perfectly.
One of my favourite songs 🙂
🙂
We have deer coming close as well… it’s a blessing to see them unless they eat up the tulips… I think the can console you in sorrow.
I’d rather have deer than tulips 🙂
I’m lucky enough to have both!
Maybe they don’t much like tulips after all. I did think they were poisonous.
Your imagery is so beautiful and captures that divine feeling of connecting with the wild. I love this, Jane.
Thanks Angela 🙂
My pleasure!
🙂
There is a lovely cadence to this!💘 A most charming write! 🙂
Thank you, Sanaa 🙂
I specially love the ending stanza Jane ~ How lovely to see that deer with wild eyes, as if understanding our pain and loneliness ~ Beautiful poem ~
Thanks Grace 🙂 I’m pleased you like it.
The broken veil and the poignant close… lovely/
Thank you 🙂
Another great one, Jane. I love the sense of immediacy you cultivate with this poem.
Here’s mine:
https://frankjtassone.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/a-tanka-for-a-month-with-yeats-day-16-haiku-poetry/
Thank you, Frank 🙂
I had quite an interesting journey with this one
https://janedougherty.wordpress.com/2017/11/16/a-month-with-yeats-day-sixteen/
You did. I love it when things link up like that.
Me too.
wrong link…here’s the right one
https://methodtwomadness.wordpress.com/2017/11/17/what-grows-here-part-2/
Nice sound to build up the sadness and mystery of the broken veil.
Thank you, Frank 🙂
For some reason, I only see the deer in the early morning at the moment. They weave in an out of the shadows in the garden. But I’ve had some handsome pheasants hiding out in our slowly denuding garden. I love the rhyme and rhythm of this poem, Jane, it’s so lyrical and magical.
Thanks Kim. It’s the Yeatsian spirit coming through 🙂 The deer seem to wander in at all times of the day and I even surprised one late at night. The pheasants I suspect are the survivors of an organised shoot from a month ago.
Our pheasants, I mean. Yours might be completely wild.
What a wonderful experience. Oh that I lived so close to nature.
Anna :o]
It’s special 🙂
It is such an honour to meet with one of these magestic beings, to share a moment .. 🌹🌹
I think so.
Indeed 💜
I’m just getting this one up. 🙂 I thought of the time I saw a baby deer across the street nibbling on my neighbors lawn and then bleating for his mother. I never knew baby deer made that sound.
https://merrildsmith.wordpress.com/2017/11/17/a-day-in-the-forest-yeats-challenge/
I’ve never heard the little ones make a noise either. But then we tend to be indoors when they drop by.
It was early in the morning, and I had just gone out the front door to get the newspaper.
You maybe startled it. The babies seem to trail behind the mother so sometimes we don’t notice that there is a baby until she runs back to get it.
I didn’t see the mother. We live on a corner, and the house across the street was also a corner house. The baby deer was around the corner from where I stood, and I don’t think it knew I was there at first. Then it bleated from where it was. After a bit, it walked over slowly in my direction, still bleating a bit, and then I think it noticed me and went running off down the street. I’m sure the mother was not far. My husband has seen them leap the 6-ft. high fence.
The babies don’t seem to have the same notion of danger as the adults, but when the parents say ‘Run!’ they run just as fast 🙂
I’ve noticed that as well. I’ve gotten pretty close to the little one but the adults tend to dart off as soon as I take a step forward.
The mother often seems to have to run back to the baby to get it moving, as if the little one hasn’t noticed anything to fear.
What a lovely experience of a ‘closeup’ with nature.
We must send out inoffensive vibes 🙂