Nature finds its habitat

Five Starlings

Five Starlings

A cool morning breeze, whispers crisp and sharp.
Dappled shadows scattered in commotion.
Rustling leaves give voice to a scratching harp.
Splash of mauve begins the day’s devotion.
Mottled yellow, wattled gold, rusted bark.
The hint of blue horizon, just a glimpse.
Canopied layers flicker; light and dark.
A symphony of birds in soundscape scrimps.
A fresh gust agitates a squawk of wing.
Palm fronds, dry with age, hang-glide to landing.
Metronome branches in pendulum swing.
. Five starlings make an oddly mark in time.
. Give cause for notice of the sun in climb.

© Tim Grace, 4 October 2013

To the reader: A fresh scene triggers interest. And so with heightened sensitivity, the watchful mind becomes alert to novel observations. The play of light and colour, along with the sound of movement interact to become a new definition of time and place. Small characters emerge from the static scene; branches swing and swish; birds flit and flirt; a mauve cloud is tickled by a golden ray of morning light; the sun lifts the curtain on a new day.

To the poet: If you listen, visual landscapes are also aural soundscapes. Together, sight and sound form the focal points of this situational sonnet. Considered as one layer, the visual element has been receded to bring forward the sounds of nature waking to a new dawn. The first version of this sonnet was simply a list of of fourteen observations, which I later over-dubbed with rhythm and rhyme; to satisfying effect. I like this sonnet.

Five Starlings

Five Starlings
Picture Source:
http://youtu.be/dcyzz-UKg4I

simple solutions

Simple Solutions

Nature finds its habitat,
Where best it finds a fit,
Accommodates to this and that,
So together it is knit …
To the ever changing circumstance,
To the ravages of time,
To the vagaries of happenstance,
That slump as well as climb.
Nature seeks not certainty,
Nor acts too far ahead,
It covets not eternity,
So accepts its daily bread.
. Nature is the consequence of patterns in repeat
. Simple solutions … flexible and neat.

© Tim Grace, 10 October 2010

To the reader: The more we marvel at the complexity of life the more we understand its simplicity… simplexity. So many of our great writers, artists, scientists and philosophers have spent their lives reducing their vast intellects into small acts of perfect beauty. In their own way reinterpreting nature; unravelling and revealing its simple patterns. While praising the reductionists it’s nature that deserves the greatest accolade for it is endlessly holistic, forever adaptive and constantly creative.

To the poet: This is a neat and simple sonnet. The pattern of three four-line stanzas is perfect for an arrival at a concluding couplet. This sonnet being a statement of sorts is emphasized in the ‘so that’ structure of the first and third stanzas. The middle stanza adds content and context to the statement. As summary, it was important the final couple was expressed as a ‘simple solution’.

 

simple solutions

simple solutions