Diving With Osprey

[PClem]

Title inspired by Ross.

April 1. Pine Siskin
2. The Great Cake Experience
3. Red-bellied Woodpecker
4. Left-sided Neglect
5. Deer on the Side of the Road
6. The Village
7. What Old Dogs Teach
8. This Row
9. Why I Love to Drive AR5
10. On Trend
11. Prayer to the God of Dreams
12.Photographing Migratory Birds
13. Mid April, Grand Isle, Louisiana
14. Observations of Golf by a NonGolfer
15. Auto Correct (or how my daughter helped me write a kitty ditty)
16. Imagined Monologue to My Landscaper
17. Naming the Flowers
18. Raccoon's Happy Hour
19. Queen Bess Island
20. This Poem Was Supposed to be About Azaleas
21. Definition of Native Gardening
22. Interpretation
23. Feeding the Birds
24. How Nature Shames Me
25. Metaphor
26. Low Note
27. Untitled
28. It Makes Sense if You Squint
29. The Failure of Language
30. Disbelief

[Janet]

You can get Ross out of Osprey if you add another s- I see no other connection. Maybe I'm thinking too hard already. Happy poeming, PClem...can't wait to read your stuff again!

[prokopton]

have a good month,
a feeding frenzy if you will!

G.

[5th column]

Diving - 'A sport or activity that occasionally involves plumbing the depths' Ok - I made that up..

[merelynn]

Happy NaPoMo!

[PClem]

Thank you all. I'm starting this month. No promise I will finish, due to other demands.

Pine Siskin


Drawn precise in the field
as an Audubon. Each feather
in place, claws folded
beneath black streaked dun breast,
yellow wash on wings names it
Pine Siskin. Perfect in execution,
neat as a specimen tucked
among cotton batting
shut in a numbered drawer
in the Smithsonian, this bird,
nonetheless, lies on gravel
below open sky like manna
dropped for fox or coyote.
Cause unknown, perhaps it forgot
how to fly. It will be gone by morning.

[kristalynn]

I like the comparison to manna. Beautifully described also with "each feather in place, claws folded...."

[Bench]

Poor thing, beautifully described. I have a friend that was once knocked unconscious by a pigeon that dropped from the sky. Who says air travel is the safest?

[DiggerTractor]

"Drawn precise in the field
as an Audubon. Each feather"

I really like the opening line.

[PClem]

Thanks, kristalynn, Bench (poor pigeon, poor friend), Digger. Getting a jump on things, here.

The Great Cake Experience


My friends are all into architectural
cakes. Eiffel Tower, i.m. pei, that sort
of thing. I struggle with a two layer round
standard birthday, pink frosting sliding down
the sides. My daughter frowns, says
could be the Super Dome, maybe, covered
in Pepto Bismol. I try a single
sheet rectangle, chocolate on white,
resembles a bunker until I fumble,
frosting side down on the floor
and I have a John Johansen Chaos piece.
These days I make Dump Cakes only,
deconstruction, post-wrecking ball.
As my father always said, it all ends
in the same place, anyway.

[Julie]

Wow, love this:

neat as a specimen tucked
among cotton batting
shut in a numbered drawer
in the Smithsonian, this bird,
nonetheless, lies on gravel
below open sky like manna
dropped for fox or coyote.
Cause unknown, perhaps it forgot
how to fly. It will be gone by morning.


And I hear ya when it comes to dump cakes. Great start!

[Alexandrite]

Strong start Laurie--- love the details in "Siskin", how "execution" serves to foreshadow in this terse piece. Nice.

[Emilio]

PC, I'm so glad you're in this year, and you're doing well, ahead already! = ).

Is it me, or is this last a revision? I somehow remember the imagery of the super dome and Pepto Bismol. Or am I getting old and losing it?! lol But I think I remember the imagery cause I liked it. Anyway, if it is a revision, please post the original link so I could see the changes, and maybe help out with a few comments.

Happy NaPo!

Your friend,

[Steven]

I like Pine Siskin, I like it a lot. Maybe because I like birds, but also because I like good poetry.

[Featherless Biped]

Nice volta in Pine Siskin; I love how the Smithsonian exhibit moves me from the assumption that it is healthy to the belief that it is going to be dead.

The Great Cake Experience seems very Shirley Jackson (in a Charles mood, rather than a Haunting of Hill House mood); I really enjoy wry wit brought to bear on everyday experience.