Otter
By onemorething
- 1297 reads
Once, the otter opened the cavern
of his mouth and talked the fish in
on hungry, muscular mornings,
and dozed away afternoons then,
in full-bellied contentment
with one webbed foot anchored
to the tie of a reed bed and
would, here, be lost to dreams
of water violets and the renaissance
of a rivered world.
Now, at night, he chases the path
of moonlight upon the ripples,
his slick form oils from the bank side:
still, he is only a spry shadow of himself.
He asks the stones
if they were ever constellations,
were they clutched at and brought low
by osprey to be snuffed out and hardened
beneath this stream,
they tell him they do not remember -
too much time torrented in one direction,
and memory dimmed in the other.
Image is from wikimedia commons of otter, osprey and salmon.
https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:John_James_Audubon_-_Osprey_and_the_Otter_and_the_Salmon.jpg
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Comments
i like otters...
yet to see one on the river...there are rumours. Love the dreamy day anchored and the busy night time - stones are a bit dense...and otters too, mostly - should have asked the river about the stones, but then your brill ending to the poem wouldn't be! Liked
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I really like the ending - it's cool,
really is - as is is perfect i reckon. Was not a criticism here -it's brill!
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Hi Rachel,
Hi Rachel,
who is to say that stones don't talk, may be we humans just don't listen, or properly understand. I love the idea of the otter asking questions...of course in its own creature way.
I'm open minded and therefore I suppose a bit gullible to some, but that's okay, but I'll never change.
So much nature to be found in this poem, reminding me of Tales Of The Riverbank which I know I harp on a lot about, but I did love watching.
Always nice to read your work and hope you are feeling better.
Jenny.
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Have
an egg, could be a osprey's. It would go well with a couple of cherries.
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It is difficult to offer
It is difficult to offer criticism especially when one reads high class poetry like yours. Generally everybody seems to be polite to everybody else and either they write nice comments or ignore a piece altogether.
Like you, Rachel, I would be happy of any kind of feedback except for rotten eggs and tomatoes. Any critical remark can be done diplomatically. Though not the kind of diplomacy that a reviewer once used when he wrote: “Everyone has a book in them; perhaps that's where this should have stayed.”
My very best, Luigi x
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