Poetry Friday—Woodpeckers for #NPM & New Mom’s Day Card

Downy Woodpecker, © Michelle Kogan, pen & ink and watercolor. Available as a card in my Etsy Shop

Happy Poetry Friday!

I ‘m continually taken by our fine feathered Downy woodpecker friends. They don’t fly away and come back, but take residence here all winter long. Last week I heard an unfamiliar bird call I was trying to place and eventually discovered it was the Downy woodpecker. I’m still not sure if it was the Dad or the offspring, but I have a hunch it was Dad, and he sure captured my attention…

BACKYARD DOWNY WOODPECKER

Persistent call, baby pecker or parent?
Perhaps baby but your
knock, knock, knocking
gives dad downy away.

Where are you?
I search, and search, and search…
April leaves still sparse, aids tracking your location.
Finally—I find you…

There you are,
mottled black and white beauty
splashed with red crescent-ring round your head’s edge.
Compact, fluffy-feathered contrasts of nature’s perfection.

I spy you,
pecking in that uncanny-curve of your tree.
Using your Teflon-tough weathered beak
to break away bark and dig out delectable treats!

Binoculars bring us closer together,
topflight doorstep view for doting on you.
Camera can’t telephoto and capture your grandness
but my mind’s eye keeps you in my imagination.

© 2021 Michelle Kogan

Here’s some activity and faint calls from some Downy woodpeckers.

I thought I’d also share Margarita Engle’s poem, DRUM DREAM GIRL. It ‘s drumming and booming, ties in with a woodpecker, and she has a woodpecker in her poem clacking away.

DRUM DREAM GIRL
By Margarita Engle

On an island of music
in a city of drumbeats
the drum dream girl
dreamed

of pounding tall conga drums
tapping small bongó drums
and boom boom booming
with long, loud sticks
on big, round, silvery
moon-bright timbales.

But everyone
on the island of music
in the city of drumbeats
believed that only boys
should play drums

so the drum dream girl
had to keep dreaming
quiet
secret
drumbeat
dreams.

At outdoor cafés that looked like gardens
she heard drums played by men
but when she closed her eyes
she could also hear
her own imaginary
music.

When she walked under
wind-wavy palm trees
in a flower-bright park
she heard the whir of parrot wings
the clack of woodpecker beaks
the dancing tap
of her own footsteps
and the comforting pat
of her own
heartbeat.

At carnivals, she listened
to the rattling beat
of towering
dancers
on stilts

Read the rest of her poem here

Here’s a haiku poem from the gorgeous blooming peach trees in my neighborhood.

pink peach blossoms
reach towards sky and release
april’s wonder-puffs…
© 2021Michelle Kogan

I have a new Azalea’s Mother’s Day Card in my Etsy Shop…

Jama Rattigan at her blog Jama’s Alphabet Soup is our hostess with the mostest for this week’s Poetry Friday roundup, thanks for hosting Jama! Jama’s laid a festive table for us with mouth watering cake, fruits, and tea! She’s also serving up a poem about poetry from UK’s past Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, be sure to stop by!

Visit Susan Bruck’s Blog Soul Blossom Living for the NPM Kidlitosphere Roundup, and Margaret Simon’s blog Reflections on the Teche for a schedule of poets participating in the 2021 Progressive Poem.

Happy Poem Reading…