II: Ode to the Heron#
Grey Heron, sing the song the winds will bring.
Who lingers longer than the Winter king?
When hunting ground returns
through fronts of blue to ice,
the moles in burrowed urns
prepare beside the mice.
The grunting geese will veer
where churning warmth once drove.
The deer all disappear
through dreary dreaming cove.
All yield, retreat and leave their claims till Spring.
Through fields, what muffled name on streams will ring?
The answer sweeps from east–
Oh! Heron! Hunter Grey!
Cry! Rouse the sleeping beast
and reaping, feast on prey!
Creep low on drift of snow
with coiled neck of spear;
Let steam of gasping slow
their rasping scream of fear.
The weather warms, yet Winter lifts your wing.
The feathers swarm, but lone to cold you cling.
In flocking song most birds
find mate to take to nest;
Let chorus part the herds
with fire from thumping chest,
your pumping flame that spurns
the burning cold on flank.
Your silent stare discerns
The creatures left on bank.
Each season makes of life a shape to wring.
Each reason born in strife escapes to sing.
The Spring first strings the thread
of lazy chirping thrush,
The Summer, berry red
and cracking eggs in brush,
Then Autumn crows of black
in pecking pumpkin hay.
Only a lonely lack
breeds mighty Heron Grey.
When night descends, take stock of everything.
What hidden home should find you nuzzling?
What branches bear your weight?
Whose feathers stroke your beak?
No human eyes await
the colony’s mystique.
The shrieking calls coalesce
atop the forest heights,
In alien address
the flame inside ignites.
March 2025
Date |
Publication |
Status |
|---|---|---|
March 27, 2025 |
Think Journal |
Rejected |
April 7, 2025 |
The New Yorker |
Pending |
June 3, 2025 |
Frontier Poetry |
Rejected |
June 4, 2025 |
Swan Scyth Press |
Pending |
June 6, 2025 |
Boulevard Magazine |
Pending |
June 12, 2025 |
Macrame Literary Journal |
Rejected |
June 13, 2025 |
New Verse Review |
Rejected |
June 14, 2025 |
Grand Little Things |
Pending |
July 01, 2025 |
New Feathers Anthology |
Rejected |
July 22, 2025 |
Earth Amulet Poetry Competition |
Pending |