Bird skirmishing

 

robin tweets his warning cry

fiery fierce

from his honeysuckle bush

none shall enter

this private tangle

 

egrets in the meadow

pause in their insect search

then resume unconcerned

the bullets

were for someone else

 

crows mob the buzzard

black voices hoarse with hatred

but when the red kites arrive

slow in tight formation

no one moves

 

Puddle moon

 

in the lane

after the rain

a puddle

in the puddle

the moon

Carborundum

Sometimes I get a word stuck in my head.

carborundum

a word that bounces

a lexical gift

to the plummeting

meteorite stone

Pearls

 

Too deep they lie for me to reach

glowing pale as distant moons

but in the sky of moonless nights

between star-glitter and the dark

I see the glint of black pearls shining.

Cages

I’d forgotten all about October being poetry writing month. A few days late, but here’s day four’s poem for OctPoWriMo.

 

there are cages

beneath the broad sky

where we put the things we envy

like birds and thoughts

and children

 

there are birds

that fly the broad sky

and thoughts that change the world

and children

who put us all to shame.

Haibun for red kites

Internet is on this morning and autumn is settling in.

Photo©Airwolfhound

Early this morning they came soaring slow and stately, searching the ploughed field for prey, a flock of red kites. Maybe forty birds, flying low, some gliding, some dropping with ployed wings into a furrow, rising again, continuing the sweep. One perched on the woodpecker’s dead tree. The tree trembled.

Night agitation ceases

owls and foxes sleep

clear starry night covers with misty damp

and the silent beating

of broad wings.

Red leaves

watching red autumn fire

consume the trees

beginning the long wait

for the fresh blaze

of spring green