The Flocking of Spring

Trees and power lines are punctuated with birds,
musically annotating the new season's words,
collecting feathers in all kinds of weather,
hollow bones and loquacious song.
They’ve carried it all winter long
spring’s scent on their wings,
essence of the vernal,
hope of life eternal.

Hope of life eternal,
essence of the vernal,
spring’s scent on their wings,
they’ve carried it all winter long,
hollow bones and loquacious song.
Scattering feathers in all kinds of weather,
musically annotating the new season's words,
trees and power lines are punctuated with birds.

Kim M. Russell, 6th April 2023

Image by Jandra Sutton on Unsplash 

Laura is hosting what seems to be a tricky challenge for this week’s Meeting the Bar at the dVerse poets Pub: we are cleaving to antonyms in contrapuntal lines.

She begins with an excellent example of antonyms in a quotation from Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, and explains how opposites are epitomized in the spring revival. She also gives us some lovely examples of opposites and contradictions in George Herbert’s ‘Easter Wings’ and an extract from ‘Spring’ poem by Edna St Vincent Millay.

Laura’s instructions look complicated, but don’t be fooled. All we have to do is choose one paired opposite from a list she has provided; then we should write two poems, one for each word, and include the chosen words somewhere in the body of each poem, which should be in one of the forms she has suggested: the contrapuntal, the cleave or the reverso. I reversed scatter – collect for my paired opposite in the reverso form.

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27 thoughts on “The Flocking of Spring”

  2. Kim, your poem is simply perfect and truly inspirational! ❤ ❤ ❤ The musical lines in the first and the scent of spring they've carried on their wings all winter, magnificent.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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