This poem is a response to the challenge Michelle Heidenrich Barnes posed on her blog yesterday. All month, Michelle has been sharing writing tips and wisdom from Patrice Vecchione‘s new book, My Shattered, Shouting, Whispering Voice: A Guide to Writing Poetry and Speaking Your Truth. Here’s the prompt:

For this week’s challenge, I’ve selected “Into the Future: Take Yourself There Now” (Chapter 53) from Part III of My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice. Patrice writes:  

Is the future a place you wish you could arrive at now? I remember feeling that way. Or maybe here and now is fine. For the length of a poem, venture into that place called future, as you imagine it; peer into its unknown terrain, and see what you find.  

As some of you may know, I have an eleven-week old granddaughter. Fortunately, I was able to visit her in February before we all had to stay home. But of course I’m anxious to see her again. Her father, my son, recently sent me a photo of a baby turtle near the pond in their yard. This poem imagines a future visit to the pond with my granddaughter.

Someday soon
I’ll take your hand
and we’ll walk to the pond.

Careful where you step!
A baby turtle, no bigger than a quarter,
is lumbering toward the pond, too.

When he arrives,
he’ll slip into the water
to forage for algae
and insects.

When we arrive,
we’ll sit on the bank
keeping our eyes peeled.
Maybe he’ll climb onto a log
to bask in the warm sun
after his meal.

Or maybe a heron will alight
on the pond’s far edge,
where the brook flows in.
You’ll grow restless
as she tiptoes on her stick-like legs,
uncurling her slender neck,
thrusting her bill
into the murky water,
aiming for a fish.

Time for lunch? you wonder.
Time for lunch, I nod.

Hand in hand,
we’ll leave the pond.
Someday soon.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2020

Previous “News From the Natural World” poems:

April 17: The Red Chair
April 16: Dear Venus
April 15: Listen
April 14: Ode to a Tide Pool
April 11: What Does A Bird’s Egg Know?
April 10: Clusters of Clover
April 9: Song of the Pink Moon
April 8: Jewel of the Jungle
April 5: Phantom of the Forest
April 4: To Build a Nest
April 3: Apple Cake
April 2: Specimen
April 1: Forest Snail

Today’s poem is an epistolary poem, a poem in the form of a letter. Finding topics for poems this month has never been a problem, but I seem to get bogged down in what form the poems should take. The more I played with my ideas about Venus, which has been putting on quite a show this month, it became clear that this poem should be a little love note to the evening star.

Dear Venus,

Every evening, when the sky is clear,
I scan the western sky
searching for your blazing light.
You’re never hard to find,
outshining every star.

I take each worry from my day,
seal it in a bubble,
then send them off to you.
Your murky clouds swallow
Them up, one by one,
without complaint.

Back on earth, I stand
beneath your dazzling glow
and feel lighter.

Thank you.

Love,

A friend

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2020

Previous “News From the Natural World” poems:

April 15: Listen
April 14: Ode to a Tide Pool
April 11: What Does A Bird’s Egg Know?
April 10: Clusters of Clover
April 9: Song of the Pink Moon
April 8: Jewel of the Jungle
April 5: Phantom of the Forest
April 4: To Build a Nest
April 3: Apple Cake
April 2: Specimen
April 1: Forest Snail

Eggs, the subject of today’s poem, seemed like a good choice for Easter weekend. The idea came from this episode of The Brain Scoop with Emily Graslie and Dr. John Bates of Chicago’s Field Museum. The form was inspired by Joyce Sidman‘s wise poem, “What Do the Trees Know?” from Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold.

What Does a Bird’s Egg Know?

What Does a Bird’s Egg Know?

To be strong enough to hold
mother bird as she protects
her babies from the cold.

What Does a Bird’s Egg Know?

The pattern and color to best conceal
each one from hungry bears or snakes,
maybe speckled brown or spotted teal.

What Does a Bird’s Egg Know?

To be the just right shape and size
for baby birds to grow and stretch
so wings are ready to reach for the sky.

Draft © Catherine Flynn, 2020

Other “News From the Natural World” poems:

April 10: Clusters of Clover
April 9: Song of the Pink Moon
April 8: Jewel of the Jungle
April 5: Phantom of the Forest
April 4: To Build a Nest
April 3: Apple Cake
April 2: Specimen
April 1: Forest Snail

Every Tuesday, the New York Times has a section devoted to science. When I opened the paper yesterday and saw this photo, I knew I had to write a poem about this enchanting little bird!

You can read an expanded version of this article here. This story was also featured in Esquire.

“Jewel of the Jungle”
(South Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher)

Hidden deep within a jungle
of the far-off Philippines
lives a bird so small and shy
she’s hardly ever seen.

Adorned in the colors of sunset,
streaked purple, orange, gold,
with bright black eyes that shine like night,
she’s a dazzling sight to behold.

Zipping, darting through the trees
finding insects for each meal,
she grabs them in her dagger-like bill,
then gulps them down with zeal.

Her jungle home is threatened
by our axes and our brawn.
Let’s stop this mad destruction
Before her habitat is gone.

Draft © Catherine Flynn, 2020

Other “News From the Natural World” poems:

April 5: Phantom of the Forest
April 4: To Build a Nest
April 3: Apple Cake
April 2: Specimen
April 1: Forest Snail

Yesterday, I contributed a line to the Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem. Find out which of my lines Tara Smith chose here, then follow the progress of this year’s “choose your own adventure” version of the poem at the links below.

1 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan