Wild Wooddove, Shy Wings Shut...

How about a little Gerard Manley Hopkins? You've probably seen his Pied Beauty and The Windhover; have you seen this one?


PEACE
—Gerard Manley Hopkins

When will you ever, Peace, wild wooddove, shy wings shut,
Your round me roaming end, and under be my bough?
When, when, Peace, will you, Peace?—I'll not play hypocrite

To own my heart: I yield you do come sometimes; but
That piecemeal peace is poor peace. What pure peace allows
Alarms of wars, the daunting, war, the death of it?

O surely, reaving Peace, my Lord should leave in lieu
Some good! And so he does leave Patience exquisite,
That plumes to Peace thereafter. And when Peace here does house
He comes with work to do, he does not come to coo,
He comes to brood and sit.

____________________

And now, for a different kind of bird:


EMU
—Patricia Wellingham-Jones, Tehama

Feathers fluffed
behind the black hide
of steers fattening for market
the only emu
left from a rancher’s unsound dream
roves the field
tiptoes over lava rocks
scans the rising distance
for her mate

___________________

Thanks, Patricia! Send in a poem about emus to kathykieth@hotmail.com before AUGUST 5 and receive a free copy of Colette Jonopulos' rattlechap, The Burden of Wings. Make it a limerick and get a free copy of Rattlechap 13.1, Why We Have Sternums by Kathy Kieth, in addition. Make it a sonnet and get a free year's subscription, as well as both books: 4 Snakes, 3 Snakelets, 2 Vypers, and assorted littlesnake broadsides—all sent to your home! Heck, throw in a sestina and I'll include Joyce Odam and Charlotte Vincent's Caught Against the Years. (And yes, we have actually been sent a sestina, but I'm holding it back for the grand finale.)

—Medusa

Medusa encourages poets of all ilk and ages to send their poetry and announcements of Northern California poetry events to kathykieth@hotmail.com for posting on this daily Snake blog. Rights remain with the poets.