Sutherland birds
All Sutherland birds are flightless, the local
council recommends
tiny holes in fences for the poor
creatures to hop
through, and we are strangers lost
and roaming in a lonely place.
Riders within us direct our dreams,
we who imagine ourselves
untouched by the local weather,
and yet a storm is brewing
by the picture rail in the dining room
where the larks are pecking at the carpet,
and Docinha’s head is hidden inside
a fluffy philosophical cloud.
Our days together, what can such
repetition ever achieve?
She asks again.
A cat pounces beyond the window,
a sky blue feather wafts
three centimeters to the left.
I ask about my diary, which should be blank,
yet every day I notice that
each page is not as blank
as the day before.
Have you by any probability,
my sweetness, been writing in my diary?
So now it’s your diary is it?
I notice you mentioned the sun god
Ra, your voyages on his solar barque
from the sunfall to the dawn.
coda from tomorrow’s news
The council’s optimistic now—avian wings
might flutter a little—and recommends
holes in fences be positioned
some centimeters above the ground.
background
Ralph Vaughan Williams, The Lark Ascending, 1914
artwork ascending
Brilliant flight Steve.
Hope you’ve had a good season thus far.
your start to the year
is several centimetres
above the Sutherland
ground
Ha ha, thanks Frank, elevator shoes. You also, pretty busy at present but in a good way, Steve.
i am still undecided if repetition is a benefit or a curse. is it the same as pattern? if so, pattern is important, for it is pattern that becomes artifice, music, structure, which however bent out of shape, however malleable we make it with our methods, it is pattern, thus acts of repetition, which allow us to begin & proceed. but then repetition also seems dulling, breasting into a Sisyphean cycle of mundanity- but then…
Daniel, you are always thoughtful and deep :). For me pattern and repetition can be synonymous, but repetition carries more of a sense of time and its direction.
I agree, I think repetition is essential in everything including our existence and all forms of art as far as I can see, but there is always variation as well, the question is how much between the limits of utter chaos and complete repetition, and on what scale?
From my studies on the arrow of time, I think that in both of these extreme cases time does not have a direction, and as creatures made of time this is not pleasing to us. Okay now too deep for me :).
Haha. i just work with what you give me Steve. Time is a bitch that makes things go its way. But i choose to ignore it as much as possible, finding my own rhythm, not exactly practical but works for me. Like a drum circle where after a while of chaos the troupe sort of organically falls into harmony without much thought.
Hi, and Happy New Year! Beautiful poem and artwork, Steve!
Thanks Randy, you too, have a great 2017.
Thanks! 🙂
Well, repetition is somewhat inevitable if we share a place or life. I’d like birds can fly again. I spent almost a year studying and drawing Ra era. That is a fascinating mention.
Happy and rich, healthy and creative 2017 from https://inesepogalifeschool.com/
Yes, it’s essential.
Ancient Egypt interests me as well, and I’ve used it in my speculative fiction in various places.
Best New Year wishes for you too, Inese, and let’s hope the birds and all of us fly in 2017, Steve.
How I love that piece of music!
(I first read that very first line as,”All Sutherland birds are flightless the local
council recommends.” Which made me laugh out loud. Who’s the idiot now? Then I read the whole thing.)
Great start for the year!
Good one, I prefer your version :P. You know there has to be a certain amount of resonance between readers and writers, in whatever area that might happen to be … XD. Thanks, Steve.
I liked these lines: “Our days together, what can such
repetition ever achieve?”
Thanks Frank, I admit I do too. My problem is not so much recognizing stuff I like, it’s more writing it 😛 , Steve.
Crazy good.
Thanks Simon, usually it’s just crazy, haha.