Graphic of the Day: Money for Poetry!!

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Poem: England and Wales in June (from Miniscule ©)

England and Wales in June


On my way to a writers' retreat
looking all the part as a writer,
laptop, camera and pens on the ready,
I wanted to look at the scenery, the mute 
hills, meticulous pastures, grazing cows,
but was distracted by flashing cars,
honking, speeding in both directions. I
recall some scenes that I would never see
again. The castle at Bishop's Castle, canals,
stone bridges, grassed moats, the deep chasm
of a Welsh river much like a landscape painting
by W. Turner. On the motorways, I heard
the distinctive howl of motorbikes, trucks,
sports-cars. Crossing the border into Wales
the clacking rail chorus of a passing train.
I missed the deep valleys of the Severn
River and more than likely the abundance
of water fowl.  To go much deeper, I would
have liked to photograph the invertebrates
that I'm only just reading about now. The
mayfly, lacewing, glowworm, lace beetle,
harlequin ladybird and the devil's coach
horse. So too, the great diving beetle and
the humming bird moth. Shining moments
of creatures so close but behind me this time.

Severn River, Shrewsbury UK

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Poem: Butcherbird in the Tuart Gums (from Miniscule ©)

Butcherbird in the Tuart Gums

Some days I carry a heavy weight in a hessian bag

that it's hard to get through the trees.

Other days I'm careful not to crush leaf litter

with my feet where an anchored world lives.

The butcherbird carries the self, much lighter than a hessian bag

full of stones and can be heard singing in the Tuart gums.

It seems this songbird is not weighed down with heavy thoughts,

but rises each morning, remembering the notes of a Bellini opera.

At dawn she practises her repertoire similar to Maria Callas,

a bel canto, the dramatic, wide-ranging rise and fall

of her throat, the beautiful trilling of her voice

as a Violetta in La Traviata.

Yesterday in the Tuart gums, I caught sight of the bird again,

a moth in her beak, amid the heavy stones, tail waggling.

Pictures of Butcherbirds by courtesy of Creative Commons

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