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Bits of Poetry

~ ransom: a little poetry every day, or the muse dies.

Bits of Poetry

Tag Archives: Ravens

Raven Racing a BNSF Train Through Eastern Washington

08 Sunday Apr 2018

Posted by minstrelandmuse in Uncategorized

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Tags

Courage, Eastern Washington, Fishtrap Lake, I-90, Moses Lake, Nobility, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Raven, Ravens, Seattle, Spokane, Strength, Washington

Imagine this: an arid countryside

In early spring, wild grasses

Still brown and dormant

From the autumn before,

Cumulus clouds, dark, heavy,

Make it seem like night,

Though your watch says otherwise.

There’s a lake reflecting the clouds,

Known for its rainbow trout,

Which attracts fishermen and birds,

And a BNSF train breaking westward

Toward Moses Lake and Seattle.

Imagine a raven soaring

Over the train, and with it:

The train, with its many orange cars,

The raven, ripping, racing, winning,

And reducing everything to backdrops

and props, objects bowed

By a single, scrappy black bird.

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A World That Killed John Lennon: Forty-Five Bits

09 Wednesday Jul 2014

Posted by minstrelandmuse in Uncategorized

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Crows, Hot Summers, Husbands, John Lennon, John Lennon's Death, Madness, Murder, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Ravens, Red Tail Hawks, Souls, The Atlantic, The Atlantic Magazine, Wives

Everyday, I try to find peace
In a world that killed Lennon;
Not only peace, but poetry.
The skies are open here, broken
Only by straggly stands of Ponderosa,
And, from my place on this earth
I can see the Red Tails hunting
Over the fields, and two crows
Gathering at the barn, for what—
To eat something that’s dead there?
Or, the thing I choose to believe,
A kindred reconnection of souls.
Today, I don’t want to know
The truth. It’s too hot.
Almost 100 degrees and much of what
Was on the verge of madness,
Has gone wholly to madness.
A husband entered a building, killed his wife.
Another man admitted doing the same
Only a short drive away.
Israel is at war, again, with Hamas,
As I sit and read The Atlantic, contemplating
The creative, communal genius of rock stars.
And, trying to find peace in a world
That shot John Lennon four times In the back.

The Mystery of Trees, Cats, Crows & Coyotes: Forty Three Bits

06 Sunday Jul 2014

Posted by minstrelandmuse in Uncategorized

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Tags

Cat Poems, Coyotes, Crow Poems, Crows, Funerals, Hawks, Poem, Poems, Poetry, Ravens, Trees

When our black cat lay dead,
At the foot of the crooked mailbox,
Her sister circled nearby in the trees.
Three days later, she too was gone.
I thought I’d heard before,
Cats will disappear,
When someone dies.

Often, in trees near our house,
We see hawks, hear crows,
Sometimes, they fight.
There is a madness in the trees,
It resembles our own madness.

Like the funerals of crows,
Their gathering in trees,
The communal mourning,
The many scold calls.
Have you heard them?
They go on like that
Over their dead.

Coyotes also gather in sound.
Their howls manic and frantic,
The way we imagine demons,
If there were demons.

There is a place in the trees
Where everything disappears:
Cats, crows, even coyotes.
It’s a dark mystery we dream,
But rarely,
The sound coming to us on wind,
Through lonely skies,
and brutal, beautiful trees.

Recent Posts

  • The Place Between Us
  • Loping a Horse For the First Time
  • Grass Widow
  • Raven Racing a BNSF Train Through Eastern Washington
  • Unity: Horse and Human Together

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