Another owl poem for the last dverse prompt of the year.
December days
of butterflies
and dragonflies
while lizard lies
basking in the sun.
Haws of maraschino
orange of oak
marcescent leaves
blaze
ashen now
by the light of the moon
they flutter
ghostly
as the wing feathers
of an owl.
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Jane Dougherty Writes 
I had never heard the word marcescent before… totally love the image of the withered leaves being like the feathers of an owl.
I discovered it when I was trying to find out which type of oak trees keep their leaves through the winter, even though they look dead. The phenomenon has a name ๐
So cool! I love finds like that. Marcescent is a great word.
It is, isn’t it? I love it when there is a word for a specific phenomenon.
I do, too.
๐
I very much admire the sparse clipped style of this Jane and the concrete style of layout – very effective I think and right up my street!
Thanks Scott! These short, imaged poems can be very effective, just as long as a thought. I’m pleased you like this.
When I encounter owls at night, they burst out of the darkness like Valkyries, their wing span immense, their talons extended. I like your owls better.
I’ve only bumped into them once or twice and only the Little Owls. The Tawnies are bigger and I wouldn’t like to tangle with them.
Love your Owls Jane. Hoot on! ๐
Thanks Robโchorus of hoots coming up ๐
I like that ghostly fluttering of the owls wings.
Thank you, Frank. Everything seems ghostly in the fog.
I’m echoing Frank–I love the leaves flutterings
ghostly
as the wing feathers
of an owl.
Thanks Merril. The weather has turned horror movie-ish. Thick fog, swirling mists and damp dripping. The owls don’t like it at all.
I’m sure they don’t.
I don’t know how the wild things stand it.
I don’t either.
Owls. So magical they are. I like that you looked up leaves that are like owl feathers. The maraschino haws are particularly visual!
Thanks Toni. The colours are beautiful even when they are dripping with fog ๐
Stunning imagery of:
orange of oak
marcescent leaves
blaze
Thank you for your support Jane! Cheers for 2019!!
Thank you, Grace, and thanks for being there ๐ Hope 2019 is a cheerier one for us both.
What a dreamy December you’ve described.
It was weirdly warm until a couple of days ago. Now it’s damp and foggy and the butterflies are more or less motionless.
Jane, you describe a world so foreign to me, it feels magical. As if, another world, not of this dimension. For the world around me, is a harsh bitter cold that’s unforgiving , in its attitude.
It isn’t all sweetness and light here either. The natural side of things is always magical, but the human aspects often fall far short. I wrote this the previous day.
I love the sound of those rhyming lines:
โof butterflies
and dragonflies
while lizard liesโฆโ
they made me feel like being lazy, which is unusual for me! I also love the marcescent leaves fluttering โghostly / as the wing feathers / of an owlโ.
I hope you hear plenty of owls over Christmas, Jane, and that you and your family have a merry one followed by a fabulous New Year. xxx
Thank you Kim for the kind wishes. It should be an owly one if the fog lets up!
Hooray another new and wonderful word. Than you , thank you.
marยทcesยทcent
/หmรคrหses(ษ)nt/Submit
adjectiveBOTANY
(of leaves or fronds) withering but remaining attached to the stem
And many holy days’ blessings to you for this lovely wisp of beauty. I’m sure the owls are blessing you too.
Thank you, Christine! It’s amazing what you find when you google it ๐ Have a wonderful end to the year and start to the new one too.
‘Marcescent’ is such an elegant word! ๐ Love the concrete style of layout .. a most beautiful and ethereal poem โค๏ธ
Thanks Sanaa ๐ It’s good to know there’s a word for almost everything.
How many owls are there?
Not that I mind. I love them.
Couldn’t say. Sometimes it sounds like a whole pack of them. Tawny owls, the whoo whoo owls. Occasionally they seem to have differences of opinion with Little Owls, the ones that yip yip like fierce little dogs.
like the look of something by moonlight, its appearance seems to be like a change of character compared to when seen in sunlight
The hard lines are softened and all the textures smoothed over.
moonlight does do that, a different perspective to a tired problem
Sometimes it’s a gentler one.
Forest Wings oF owl
Owl Of Wings Forest
Feathered forest
winged with
music
Lyrics
Of
Poetry
DeLiGHT
With Happy
Holidays to Jane..:)
From winter solstice
to Imbolc fire
cold winter to
spring light
be happy ๐
Beltane Dreams
Warmth
Of May
FLoWeRS..:)
So far away
May
We still have
winter sting
then sing
spring ๐
As Dance
Brings
Summer
Dreams Again..:)
Love the imagery here Jane. The very first time I saw an owl was this past summer. A little guy, he was…and it was in the middle of the day. Odd I thought:). A nice write.
Pat
Thanks Pat ๐ You might have seen a Little Owl, they’re known as Athena’s owls here. They hunt during the day.
Ooo! I see! That’s what it was. He had a close eye on some baby squirrels that were playing.๐
Yummy ๐
LOL! Poor babies!
I know ๐ Squirrel babies are so cuteโlike all babies really.
True๐
I also love the word marcescent. It is a singing word like deliquescent.
Deliquescent is a tremendous word. Not one I get to use much. I should write more horror stories ๐
Ah Jane, you are so talonted, it owltogether wonderful.
I do like your owls especially how the camouflage with trees is subtly woven in. ๐ฆ
Thanks Lona ๐ I enjoy writing about the owls and fitting them into poems.