photography – Page 76

Morning Walk — Images

We walked this morning. Two bipeds, one quadruped, together breathing in a mild mid-morning.

Rattlesnake Meadow flickered with a wind’s breath that slipped between blown cattails. Snowbirds tittered and darted with sparrows too quick, too subtle for my eye to name.

A Red-tailed Hawk skimmed the meadow’s reed-sawn edge to roost in a slow-decaying tree. Patient, he surveyed the landscape. So much hidden within those pale grassy blades — I missed the Snowy Egret; I’m certain he did not.

At our walk’s end, a white-tailed deer wove ahead across our path, unconcerned by our intrusion. A fortunate start to a late-November day.

Myth — A Poem

Earthbound,

grounded —

the sea stretched and foaming before us,

slope-shouldered dunes whispering

at our backs —

We stood side by side,

sand tugging toes,

necks craning

to lift squinting vision up,

to see —

To witness

myth and fancy

spread over the wide blue expanse of sky,

riding subtle, fingering breezes

at the ends of tethered lines.

— C.Birde

InstagramCapture_08e3e0b0-faf4-4aac-94f4-29c5ac882234 — “Pegasus” — C.Birde, 11/15

Nature photo

Sunlit Maple — An Image

Created with Nokia Smart Cam — “Sunlit Maple” — C.Birde, 10/15

Sunlit maple —

An arboreal song composed in dazzling, gold-leaf splendor.

–C.Birde, 11/15

Persistence — A Poem

Yes.

I see the cracks,

the chips and fissures.

Tattered edges, fraying seams.

I hear the noise,

the thrum and tumult

near-constant as sea tide.

It breaks my heart.

It compels me to clear my eyes

and strengthen my resolve

to magnify those signs,

however small,

of persistent

hope and

beauty.

— C.Birde

photo

Hickory — An Image

Arrow-tall Hickory pelts the earth with its potential offspring. In childhood, I spent many a day beneath just such a tree as squirrel or chipmunk or blue jay; peeling back thick, green, four-petaled husks till my fingernails were tarnished; cracking open the small taupe-brown orbs within; picking out and eating the sweet nutflesh.

Autumn Nature photo trees

Chasing Autumn — A Poem

Southward,

we chased Autumn,

through burnished, narrowed light

beneath an escort of sprung-coil,

gloss-winged birds.

We pursued Her flame-leafed trail —

a coy wink,

a sly step —

until we lost Her among

gnarled live-oaks

and regiments

of soaring,

sentinel pines.

— C.Birde

Autumn Nature photo trees

Invocation — A Poem

Let the leaves collect

at my feet

in their rustling,

scuttling

tumble.

May my skies froth

with rivers

of eddying,

harbinger

blackbirds.

Fill my cup with Autumn —

but allow

Spring to reside

in my heart;

Summer,

in my bones.

–C.Birde

Autumn Nature

The Four Sisters — An Image & A Poem

The Four Sisters twine limbs

against the elemental sky

and weave roots

to part Earth

with slow and steady certainty.

They hold the memory of years,

of an age,

in their woody flesh,

girdled within their torsos

in concentric rings.

They do not complain,

nor pass judgment,

nor beg favor

as I pass between their knees,

beneath their shadow lattice.

Yet always,

they return my greeting in

their rustling,

multi-leafed chorus.

–C.Birde

Nature photo poem trees

Abiding — A Poem

I walked, this morning, with Autumn,

Her chill hand in mine,

Her breath cool on my cheek.

She wore as mantle the muted blue sky

flocked with dove-gray cloud.

We marked our steps in asters,

goldenrod, and foamy white snakeroot.

“Fret not,” she said,

“over Winter’s approach.”

Her voice rustled in sunset hues.

“Heed the crickets’ chant —

“still time still time still time.

“Harvest the cooling air.

“Gather the stretched-long rays

“of enduring sun,

“And abide.”

In downward drift around us,

the cider leaves collected,

And all the forest

breathed.

— C.Birde

Nature

Contentment — A Truth Poetic

Chipmunks share

the morning’s news in

ringing, staccato notes;

And Jays fall

from trees in

blue-blazed truth,

hunting among acorn-hued leaves

for those derbied nuts.

The Electron finds a

white-laced length of shed

snake skin,

too delicate to lift

with slender twig.

The light is diffuse, gentle.

The air is cool and sweet.

Absorb this

’til it imbues thought

and act

and gesture.

Carry it out and into

the World beyond these

wooded doors.

— C.Birde

“Autumn Tourne”, C.Birde Oct. 2015

Nature photo writing