A Message from the Crows

She lingers by the lane,
in the interregnum
of autumn,
an exhalation of green,
watching glossy crows
gather over stubbled fields
of faded ochre, sewn
delicately with bales
and rustling with dragonflies.
The end-of-day sun casts
a murder of shadows,
letters from above,
the winged initials
of her one true love.

Kim M. Russell, 12th September 2019

Image result for A murder of flying crows
Image found on okrocco.com

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar: Descriptive Detail

Frank is our host for Meeting the Bar this week, talking about descriptive detail, which he says is the entry door to a room full of metaphor for what the poem really means. Frank explains that how the poet handles this description may motivate the reader to remember the poem and read it again.

He gives us the examples of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Jabberwocky’ and T. S. Elliot’s description of April in ‘The Waste Land’.

Frank asks us to write poems that pay attention to the descriptive detail that will tell readers what the poem is about and what we hope will hold their interest and make them want to read them again.

English rural workers used to watch crows flying over fields to see if they formed the shapes of letters, the initials of their true loves.

34 thoughts on “A Message from the Crows”

  6. A wonderful treat for my first stop on the trail tonight. There’s just something about crows. No matter what the prompt, they find their way into someone’s poem. Another strong poetic from you, putting me in mind of the winter I chanced upon a leafless tree clogged with crows. Suddenly the chill air was filled with hundreds of birds. I saw several words mid-murder.

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  14. This is so gorgeous. The phrase “in the interregnum of autumn” is so lovely. I lingered over the definition of interregnum, which is high praise for your word choice. And while I wrote my poem this morning, large bird shadows passed across the lawn without revealing whose they were, so your poem also has a deep resonance.

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