Ascending : Guest Post By Jeannie Prinsen

Dear Friend,

I'm delighted to share a poem with you today! It was written by my friend Jeannie Prinsen. Jeannie is an online writing instructor at Queen's University. She shares many insightful reflections on her blog Little House on the Circle. 

+ + +

The experience that inspired this poem took place a couple of years ago in Prince Edward Island (where I was born and where my family still goes every summer).  We  had arrived at my parents' place earlier that day, and I was taking an evening walk.  There is something about the quiet of the surroundings and the beauty of the sky there, especially at sunset, that always makes me feel peaceful.  But the cloud of starlings -- something I don't think I'd ever seen before -- added a different dimension to this walk. I was fascinated by their swooping formations and the way they crowded into a tree, chattering loudly, and then suddenly lifted off as one.  This poem tries to capture the sight, sound, and feeling of that experience.

ascending

shape-shifting black

ellipses thrill the evening sky

a thousand starlings

    swirl

             swoop

                      dive

then settle

turning a sun-kindled apple tree

into a quivering

dappling

murmur

ation

each leaf and twig

pulsing with their over

lapping voices

suddenly

they rise in a shush of underlit wings

like flakes 

of fire

showering

upward

like fallen stars returning

to heaven

and I watch

wistful

wondering

how it would feel

to fly

my own wings touched with the light

of day's golden 

end

In case you missed it: Jeannie and I did another photo/poem collaboration earlier this year. You can read it here.

poem cJeannie Prinsen 2013
please do not reproduce without author permission