Journey of Words

Tag: Birds

  • Lockdown 3 (Day 17) In Sunshine

    My apartment faces south, but is overshadowed by the flats built over the atrium at the front and on its east side. This means no morning light reaches me directly and I have to pull the curtain across to assess the weather. Today the sunlight was blasting down King Street. I just had to leap →

  • On 2020

    Memorable year One I would rather forget Finally ends here ~ CLP 31/12/2020 →

  • On Anger

    Cool autumnal dawn Illuminates dark corners Pigeons’ soft greetings ~ CLP 18/09/2020 →

  • Terns

    Crunching east on stony beach With the westerly Encouraging me to move along With uncalled for shoves to my spine Like an impatient copper Clearing an unruly popular terrace Causing me to stumble As I stagger on loose pebbles Waves tumble in Wash through shingle The rage of sea repressed By this burly bully at →

  • The Mournful Call of Red Kite Chicks

    Out of the pines tilted on the tip of the ridge Wheezy cries limp across the heath Sounds of an aged asthmatic held hostage in a loose bed of twigs Drawing out creaky breaths in a sickly rhythm Plaintive, pathetic pleas for attention from a speechless chest On an open ward where the staff are →

  • Rookworms

    Clouds of oily birds Floated down from the pine clump Shadowed the low field ~ Cows and calves bemused At pasture blackened with crows Jackdaws and bleak rooks ~ Settled frozen still Hundreds came and stood alert For movement of soil ~ The gloomy flock stirred Disturbed by wind-blown phantom Hung on breaths of wind →

  • Sitting Target

    Distressed blackbird clucks Disturbance within hedgerow Smug cuckoo departs . n.b. Here is Sir David Attenborough taking you through the dirty work of the parasite obligate we call the cuckoo. CLP 31/04/2020 →

  • Starlings

    Hear that? The deranged fluting Of squabbling neighbours In hedgerows, on bushes Ceaseless bickering An endless stream Of chiding and chipping Away one moves The others follow From pillar to post To willow to fence Unable to let rest Whatever the matter be Resolved or not There’s always more to add Or subtract from what’s →

  • Day 58

    The cowslips have finally given up the ghost. Their yellow petals have faded, vibrancy lost, they wilt. Job done. In the woodland at the foot of the heath, on the slope of the hill, bracken ferns are beginning to unfurl. Sprouting strong from below the past year’s brown litter, the firm green shoots, follow a →

  • On the Marsh

    Lapwings squeal at crows Stealing eggs from open nests Fear-filled commotion . n.b. Dreadful scenes of larceny and conflict marking daybreak on 1st May. . CLP 1st May 2020 →