Our host a dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics is Laura Bloomsbury, who asks us for our flights of fancy. The following is based on a real life observation of a nesting pair of Great Horned Owls who were being tormented by a scold of very noisy jays. One of the adult owls defiantly lured the jays away and suddenly turned on them, snatching one unwitting fellow right out of the air.
Flight of Fancy/Dance of Death
Whump, whump, whump the air throbs
under the assault of massive wings
three powerful strokes and he is aloft
master of the thermals
He dips one wing in silent condolence
to the pitiful flightless things below
while defiantly flying straight
into the scold of jays, and through
He climbs ever higher, taunting
inconsequential forms of lesser birds
that fall behind in the chase
still jeering they cluster … until
Pivoting on one wing, he falls
with sharp talons and flared wings
like an avenging angel set to smite
their relentless taunting
A silent cloud of black feathers
announces his success
Fly Like an Eagle — Steve Miller Band
Til next time ~Peace ~JP
fabulous
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
you’re welcome
LikeLiked by 1 person
Beautifully and powerfully written, just like the owl. 🙂 The first stanza is especially strong.
LikeLike
Thank you, I had never seen a great horned owl in flight before it was awesome and … frightening 😉
LikeLike
Thanks Li, it was an amazing thing to watch. One of the parents (I assume the father) pounced on those jays which were just plain harassing the nest with their calls. When I saw him grab that jay and feathers went everywhere, all I could think was “gotcha” lol
LikeLike
JP the “whump whump whump” is exactly what I would expect the owl’s wings to sound like as he rises. I really love that ending bit:
“A silent cloud of black feathers
announces his success”
LikeLiked by 1 person
So beautiful!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much Lucy 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
That must have been awesome and shocking to see, and you’ve captured the action so well in this poem, appealing to the sense of sight and sound. I love that you have called the owl ‘master of the thermals’, the lines:
‘Pivoting on one wing, he falls
with sharp talons and flared wings
like an avenging angel’,
and the way the poem is punctuated by the ‘silent cloud of black feathers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you Kim. It was entrancing. The pure raw power of an adult Great Horned Owl is something to see. They are such elegant, silent hunters but fierce defenders of their nests. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
There is a hierarchy in the world of birds too. (K)
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh yes! It’s so remarkable to me that jays will gather in large groups for vocally harass raptors in an effort to drive the predator away while the owl will lead the offending noise makers away from the nest. I’ve actually always found the jays to be the more aggressive of the two. I guess what they lack in size they make up for in numbers. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
They can be quite bossy.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You got me right at the beginning with the throbbing air. So descriptive and well written.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person