Watermark

crows

in the park
four crows eating
at the picnic table

UPDATE:  This has become a collaborative poem dance!  I am pulling these up from the comments; anyone who would like to participate, please do, and I'll bring yours up, too.

outside the window
of my third-floor office
crows shriek and gurgle

       Patia at montana mUsIngs


Crows screech, "We're all that!"
The Magpies beg to differ,
"Are you shiny blue?"

      Wulfgar at A Chicken Is Not Pillage


four eggs, separated -
even before breakfast
eating crow

      Deborah at AuthorsDen


field ridges frozen -
a crow scrapes sound
from a crack in the sky

      Sara


hard wind
the shadow of a crow
still beside mine

      Norman at Xaiku


on the snowbank by the road
a calligraphy of crows
poem to the coming night

      Cindy


flat grey sky
calligraphy
of crows

      SB


clever and dark winged
trickster with much
within to crow about

      Morgan at Norsehorse's Home Turf


A murder of crows.
Guilty as charged.
A crime of passion...
that they could not foresee.
But now it is done,
and the crows know.
Their time will come.

      Big Sky Dave at Big Sky Dave


Two crows eating at the picnic table
One named Cain and one named Able
This table's mine said Cain
No it's not said Able
I can kill you said Cain
But you won't said Able
Oh yes I will said Cain,
Remember the Bible fable
You mean when Cain killed Abel?
Haha but my name is Able
said Able.

      Natalie at BLAUGUSTINE


In the last moment,
as the final breath was drawing nearer
I saw an angel flying with a crow
Looking for those who are near
To beckon them with the release of death
to take their souls back home.

      Jen at [para]Bellum.[net]

   

on the hillside
over the coulee
an ancient snag of a tree.

wizened branches dotted
with a flock of starlings --
tiny, black.

on the highest branches
two giant elders
not crows -- ravens.

       Patia at montana mUsIngs


mist haze-
a crow cleans its beak
on a rooftop aerial

a hooded crow
pecks just outside
the penalty area

rooftop verandah -
a crow's drawn out cry
above the pizzaria

powdered snow -
a crow's eyes above
the no parking sign

floating snowflakes -
the triple caw of a crow
within the tree

      Alan Summers at FRONT ROOM


The crow extends it wings too fair
But misses the currents that maintains its air
Knowing that lifes a fragile thing
Meets with others to deaden the pain.

      Sarpy Sam at Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere


she waits
for her lover
a crow alights
on her shoulder
to pick at the carcass
of what was once her
bleeding heart
and still
she waits

      Pandora at Terrestrial Ball


winter poplar
buds crawk open
into crows

*****

a knotted line,
knuckled black leather legs
-- silhouetted twigs
regular Mr. Crow and his
crow knees gathered,
edging the sky

       Pearl at Page Half-Full


playful dogs -
the strident caw
of a nesting crow

       Laryalee at Soft Strokes


Black crow rest against
the maple’s red buds,
resting against the white sky.

The plane’s white exhaust
twists into clouds of many.

A foot is shifted,
falling snow turns
into a white waterfall.

Widening, the blue sky
adds more sun for the day’s light.

All this in five minutes.

       Cathy at The Quiet One


         *Reconnaissance*

The ravens come to feast upon the deer.
Their talons are too dull to tear like claws.
They smartly team with wolves, as hunting peers
And point the way to road kill with their caws.

These creatures love to play, nurse others' chicks,
Do barrel-rolls and bathe collectively,
Use rocks for self-defense and play with sticks
And flying upside down proclaim they're free.

But still, to man, an animal can't feel --
We daren't believe they love or hurt or think.
We cage them all in labs and farms concealed:
The human 'masters' cannot face the stink.

Our bankrupt, separate culture's madness reigns.
We think. Ergo we end the world, /with brains/.

       Dave at how to save the world


Raven

       SB


a sparrow
chases a crow away --
paternity

       David


Work

The mind bunches its black shoulders
and flaps free of the body.
How serious the mind is!
Tilting its glossed head.
Marching stiff-legged in ditches.

       Erin Noteboom at Vivid
       Work is from Book of Hours


he was not
interested
in crows
family corvidae
he had never been
would not
write a poem
about them ever
and sat
in his lounger
in his garden
and woke up
to find himself
surrounded by
an ever thickening
hungrily closing in
ring of black crows
sharp beaked crows
nasty ravens, carrions,rooks
and smelly tacky jackdaws
he suddenly frantically
changed his mind
and then inspired
grabbing paper
seizing pen wrote
to a satisfied cawing
and wing flapping.

       Patrick McManus


Blacks cats
turn into crows,
who scamper into
the morning sky.

       Cathy at The Quiet One

CROWS.

Awakened to the sound of crows
Caparisoned in feathers,
Iridescent, black and sleek,
Rapping at their reflections in my window,
With their insolent beaks.
Each crow it seems a strutting villain,
Straight from Shakespeare,in their
black stockinged leg,
A Richard King, on little princes feasting,
Mere babes too young,
  to fall from the nest, or beg
For Mercy!  For Merccyyy!!

Yeah each crow becomes Macbeth
when he clears his throat to speak,
Or nonchalantly cleans on bloodied wing
the daggered beak.
Or holds in the arrogant, tilted head held dreaming,
The dark sardonic eye, that dreaming seems to say,
  that schemeing seems to say,
"Oh How I Wish the Human Race
  Had but single face,
So that I might spit in it,
Once and for all,
  To show my complete,
    and utter disgust,
       with the whole,
                  damn,
                     show.."
and screaming they fly flapping,away.
Crows! How they Crow!

-Guy FreeMarijuana. [Copyright2003]

I Dream

I dream I am an eagle
A symbol of
Power, strength and beauty
Envied by all

I dream I am a parrot
A clown
In vibrant colours
Loved by all

I dream I am an owl
A silent night hunter
With bright yellow eyes
Unseen by all

I dream I am a snake
A symbol of
The devil
Feared by all

Awake now
I am but a Crow
A symbol of
Witchcraft and spells
Condemned by all

Open your mind
Condemn me not
Because my feathers black
My body sleek
My eyes white, piercing
My cry, a sound you do not like

Open your mind
And understand what I am
I am your garbage truck
You leave such a mess
Rubbish in the parks, roads
Almost everywhere

Open your mind
You may yet respect me
For if I were not here
Your diseases spread everywhere
So next time you see me in the Park
Ask, is that my rubbish
I left behind

Open your mind
When you condemn me
You condemn yourself

Trixie Benbrook [Copyright 2002]

 

black shape on white snow

fathomless as a deep hole

until the crow caws

Jacquie at wild ink

 

The crow
hopping with hunger
three fingers wrapped around
another's
as he leads to the nest.

Arkava Das at sciowithbrio

 

...we do not see
what we do not eat
can I have a bite then
of your tatoo

         my own ravens love for me

Dale
   

 

Cool flying crow from How To Save The World, who found it at Boomer Cafe.

More about crows.

love, i ask you

if I go out mining
carry my pick and my hoe
if I go out in the dark
morning to dig you up

to dig you out of my-
self the pick to cut away
stone and the hoe to turn my
heavy dirt will I find

you hard and silent just
another sharp stone in the
seedy soil of me or should
I go out in the night

with a flashlight a torch
to pull your night-crawling self
up out of the dark of my
thick loamy skin will you

rise to the bait of the
light? if you do and I pull
you up thinking to pierce you
on some sharp hook and feed

you to another poor
fish will you break in two and
half of you slip back through my
crumbly crevices will

you still be turning there
in the deep dark loosening
dry soil with the slippery
sheen of your body?
      

Is Your Pet An Earthling?

NOTED UFO EXPERT DECLARES: MILLIONS OF PETS ARE REALLY SPACE ALIENS

. . . one out of five dogs and cats are space pets, descendants of original alien creatures that were 'seeded' on Earth 50,000 years ago. . . .

A quick scan of the WorldWideWeb found proof:

 

 

Still sceptical?  Then what is this??

 

And here is my own sweet Boo, caught unaware:

 

Lucy is not an alien, but she knows
THEY'RE OUT THERE

For more scholarly inquiry on this subject, go to Cats Could Be Aliens; and to find out if your cat is an alien, take the quiz at International Inquirer, then read the rationale for the questions.  The answers may startle you.

Snapshot 23 June 02004

fatigue

the longest day
ends pink-
skied

falling
into the dark
crevasse

whatever vehicle
brought me
here

is lost or
won't start or
has no brakes

grey concrete
engulfing
even the foxglove

even
the budding
lily

Linked Haibun I

illness sharpens --
in arctic summer every stone
is shawled with fire
               Erin Noteboom

The cats woke me a bit after 3:00 a.m., and the house began shaking about a minute later. I waited for it to end, but it kept on, so after awhile I got up and climbed the stairs (without thought, without effort, without pain) the cats swirling around me. Out the living room window, the channel and the mountains were glowing. I don’t remember the moon, but it must have been there – the water rippling and gleaming with its light.  I stood, caught by that gold water, until the world stilled again. 

                                                                                  dust on the stairs
                                                                                  the cat’s
                                                                                  pawprint

 

GMail Invitations

I have six GMail invitations available; email me (link on sidebar) if you want one. Generally it will be first come, first served, except that my usual readers get preference.

UPDATE: All gone!

Summer Solstice, Sitka, Alaska 1993

This day blooms
under wide meadows
of sky. We lay
our sun-stunned bodies
in constellations
of clover and buttercups. 

Salmonberry bubbles
of sweet red light
break on our tongues. 
Shooting stars
in the flowerbeds,
pollen in our sheets. 

Fathers' Day

Today is Fathers' Day.  A Google search for "origins" and "proclamations" doesn't serve up much -- the basics are here:

 

Father's Day was first celebrated in Spokane, Washington on June 19, 1910. Sonora Smart Dodd originally thought of the idea while listening to a Mother's Day sermon the previous year. Dodd and her five siblings were raised single handedly by their father, William Jackson Smart, after their mother died during childbirth in 1898. Her petition advocating a national father's day was supported by the local ministerial association and the Young Men's Christian Association. . .

Compare this to the Mothers' Day Proclamation, which I posted here, and which begins with "Arise then, women of this day!"

I have been blessed with a loving stepfather, Joseph Serr, who came into our lives when I was nearly grown, and has stayed steady ever since, through dramas and traumas that would have dissuaded a lesser man.   

Those interested in the ambivalences and ambiguities of the father-child relationship might want to explore the Father Poems in Poets' Corner at Fieralingue.

Weekend Entertainment

A few entertaining links for the weekend:

First, My Brilliant Career, found at Cuttlefish, which I found at Mike Snider's Formal Blog and Sonnetarium. Just a sample:

I'm particularly poor at noticing famous people (I'm busy wrestling with my own 'inner famous person'). The evening was spent out in Chorlton with various artistic, creative types at varying stages of their own development (the tutor, the ex-student, the current student, the future student etc.) I seem particularly ill-served at being there in that 'what I have done' is usually nothing whatsoever to do with the literary life. The Manchester art degree shows this week are a highpoint of the year, but another load of artists... what . . . will they all do? . . . Oh how prosaic is the muse!

View your site backwards, via Exclamation Mark. Why view your site backwards? No reason that I can think of. (But I did it.)

Chinese Symbols, via The PreSurfer. This one is water.

And a wonder-full, fascinating way to spend a half-hour or so: 99 Rooms (via as i live the questions.) If you don't have flash, this is the reason to install it; if you have it disabled, this is the reason to enable it. Also, BUBBLESOAP, which I found long ago; I don't remember where.

And just a note, I've updated the MONTANA BLOGGERS Kinja Digest -- I think we are all in there now, and in the MONTANA BLOGGERS section of my Links blog. If I've left anyone out, please let me know.

Comic Cats

    Just two of the very silly cats from ComicCats
(via Burningbird)

Want more fuzzies? Try the Carnival of Cats; the Carnival of Dogs; or (via Ceejbot) the Caravan of Ducks.

And for a complete change of pace (sorry, I couldn't resist this one):

CHILL OUT [flash] via MetaFilter