Poetry / Writing

NPM: J is for Hope

Catherine Flynn12 Comments

J is for Hope

Why?

Because…

All winter long
a chittering of juncos 
forage for seeds
under a maple tree,
hopping on short, slender legs,
their pink beaks pecking
in snow or leaf litter.
Tilting heads from side to side,
bright black eyes
always alert
for hawk’s shadow,
ready to flutter for cover
in an instant
melting into a
gray and white world.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2023

I was traveling yesterday and honestly had hit a wall with these poems. I turned to Valerie Worth’s Small Poems for inspiration and found it in “Dog.”

Ryan Hodnett, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Previous NPM Posts:

Day 1: H is for…
Day 2: A is for Hope
Day 3: B is for Hope
Day 4: C is for Hope
Day 5: D is for Hope
Day 6: E is for Hope
Day 7: F is for Hope
Day 8: G is for Hope
Day 9: Hope is
Day 10: I is for Hope

12 thoughts on “NPM: J is for Hope”

  1. J is for the junco that is still hanging around our yard and feeder in his tidy grey jacket. I know he’ll be gone soon, or should be, and then some time in late October, I’ll start watching for him again. (Sorry for the wall, but hooray for Valerie Worth!)

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  2. “Chittering of juncos” is perfect! I was just admiring their grey and white flight yesterday and thinking that soon they will be gone until next winter. It was nice to celebrate them with your lovely poem.

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