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 then veer

where churning warmth is 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.

• Original March 2025

• Revised June 2025

Submission History

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 Scythe Press	Rejected
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
August 15, 2025	Loch Raven Review	Rejected
August 16, 2025	Missouri Review	Rejected
August 22, 2025	Oxford Poetry Prize	Rejected
August 26, 2025	Gavialidae	Rejected
September 3, 2025	Hopkins Review	Pending
October 6, 2025	Gilded Weathervane	Pending

Dear Grant Moore,

Thank you for sharing your work with NVR. While we have decided to pass on these poems, we enjoyed reading them, especially “Ode to the Heron.” We hope you will submit again to future issues.

—NVR Editors