Riverbank

The riverbank beavers 
a hustle and bustle 
once spring is underway.

A wagtailing wind 
tugs the last of the catkins 
throughout the month of May.

Warblers and dippers
fly over rivers 
that surge and swell with rain

‘til the sun otters out
with a spiral of sparkles –
the river’s alive again.

Kim M. Russell, 30th May 2023

Image by Ray Harrington on Unsplash

It’s Tuesday and at the dVerse Poets Pub it’s Poetics with Sarah, who wants us to have some fun with verbing, in particular animal nouns that have become verbs, such as ‘haring, ‘ferreting’ and ‘rabbiting’.

Sarah says that she’s not not sure how these words became verbs – I think David Crystal or Michael Rosen might have an idea – and she observes that they are often verb phrases and little hidden metaphors – part of the poetry of everyday language. I agree that they’re rather lovely and am glad that she wants us to play with them.

We can take one of these well-established verbs, as Peg Duthie did with ‘rabbiting’ in her poem ‘Decorating a Cake While Listening to Tennis’ and Floyd Skloot with ‘larking’ in the poem ‘Handspun’ – both of which are delightful. Sarah has provided a list, from which we can choose one or more and incorporate them into a poem.

Or we can verb animals of our choice.

I tried a bit of both.

45 thoughts on “Riverbank”

  3. This is gorgeously rendered, Kim 😍 I especially admire; “Warblers and dippers fly over rivers that surge and swell with rain.” 💖💖💖

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    1. Thanks Jane! It’s mine too. The only problem when I read this poem back to myself after I posted it was that I was doing it to the tune/rhythm of ‘All of a sudden a lump of bread pudding came flying through the air’! 🙂

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  16. Sounds like our house, Kim, I like. Only different wildlife, mostly rabbits, all few squirrels, an occasional alligator, and all kinds of migratory birds from Mexico or farther south. Our sun often appears around 10:00 in the morning, wetness comes in from the Gulf of Mexico.
    ..

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