Raptor, A Collection of Poems
fuel
trapped in the clear blue empty sky
farsighted, hot-headed
sacred
love quickens
love compels me
to dive
to pierce
to kill
hush
she
no haggard
but caught, valiant
in an unseen snare
and no bloody end
no
jessed instead
hooded instead
waiting
breathing
listening
rapt
uncle
a day old chick
is offered me
I, still wild
tethered to your wrist and hungry
refuse
we wait while you wake me
bullies
wings and wine and wild things
disturb my afternoon nap
genuine, unkind wild things
shift their weight
then linger
the brutes
I rise to greet them
a conquistador vanquished
a lover lost
my stomach growling
I rise
In looking through my older works, I found these which I had forgotten about. I wrote them about ten years ago when I was considering taking up falconry. Falconry turned out to be too much work for me (holy cow is it a lot of work!) and I got chickens instead, but I am still fascinated by the art.
Ohhh.... these are excellent. I love how minimal and abstract they are! I'm able to feel them immediately on the first read without needing to think what they're about, then re-reading brings the subject into clearer relief.
I feel that "bullies" is the best example of that. There's paradoxical emotion that resolves in the decision to rise. Upon re-reading, one gets a sense that it is the dense vagaries of physical life that are bullying, threatening one's peace. Definitely a fitting conclusion to this collection and contains a sense of finality where the others lift, unresolved, into surprise at their end.
Thanks so much for the close read and superb comment! I was surprised by how much I still like these, and didn't have to change a single thing before publishing them today. I remember working a very long time on each bit, including researching and watching birds of prey swoop about. It makes me very happy to hear that they had a positive effect for you.
To all you downvoters, this is the very best thing I have ever written and THIS you choose to downvote?! What did I ever do to you?!!!!
@mmmmkkkk311, For real?! Go pick on someone your own size.
Read my reply https://steemit.com/promo-steem/@kennyskitchen/re-mmmmkkkk311-q6fcjw
I already returned your rewards @owasco. I'm going to return all the rewards this jack-ass steals from people. (unless the content is actually trash of course)
thanks again. If I can help out lemme know.
I'm not reading anything of yours. You have made me a casualty of your war with someone else. Like I said, go pick on somebody your own size.
He baselessly claims it is a "ponzi scheme" which just shows that either he doesn't understand how it works or (more likely) he just doesn't understand what a ponzi scheme even is! And the blatant hypocrisy in him trying to fight "vote selling" when that is exactly what he did with his bidbot! As as bidbot owner with over a dozen alt accounts he is in no place to judge what is right or wrong here on Steem. Now he is mad that his scam has ended. So like an upset child, he has decided to take out his anger (caused only by his own failures) on other innocent people. Making him nothing more than a big bully!
MK admits to running a bidbot
Actual account who was "wrecked by @mmmmkkkk311 (for holding sbi shares)"
I am here to counter @mmmmkkkk311's bullying. I will upvote every post/comment that he downvotes. You can support my anti bullying upvotes by delegating (links below) Steem Power to @ilovemk311. And you can help keep this message visible by upvoting this comment or by purchasing SBI shares for @mk311isabully which will help to counter the downvotes that @mmmmkkkk311 will surely send my way. Which I highly encourage him to do as the more downvoting power he wastes on me the less he can use to downvote the real content creators here on Steem that would otherwise become his victims!
Choose a delegation amount
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With this jerk bullying innocent people we are seeing many great content creators leave due to the drama and negativity that @mmmmkkkk311's downvote campaign brings to the blockchain. While he claims he is trying to defend his investment he is actually unwittingly destroying it.
SBI is an initiative that has done nothing but help promote onboarding and community building here on the Steem blockchain. Let us not turn our back on it out of fear for getting downvoted. Instead lets stand up for this great initiative that has helped so many people and helped the Steem community to grow and thrive!
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uvoted and resteemed!
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The falcon is present, without being named. Lovely. I guess that's what minimalist poetry can do: create energetically. You've clearly conveyed the presence of that bird (especially in the first poem), but that presence is in a space beyond the words. Far more powerful than a precise description could ever be.
Wow! Thanks! Saying the ineffable is the primary function of poetry for me, so that's a cool comment, the best. Have you tried haiku? Keep an eye out on @bananafish's haiku contest in English, which should be popping up soon. That there is stating both the obvious and the ineffable in very few syllables and is a major rush.
I have tried haiku, and I'm far from mastering it! I'll definitely watch for that contest.
Thanks for the cross post! That's pretty cool! And you can do that after payout? Does it have to have been published in a community?
Ta da!
https://steempeak.com/haikucontest/@bananafish/mizu-no-oto-every-image-has-its-haiku-edition-47-english
These inspired me to write !
Thank you 🙏🏻
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It's my pleasure! Check out @mariannewest for daily freewrite prompts and good friends. Welcome.
OMG I love these verses from a raptor's POV!!!
Powerful and compelling:
Wow! and this:
And "the brutes" - high impact AND humorous.
You are inspired! I love this! and the final lines - forgive me, was I not supposed to laugh? - the conquistador, stomach growling - seem such a humbling, human touch. I love it. Love it! You are on a roll @owasco!
Thank you honey bunch! It's one of my favorites. I really do think this one said what I wanted it to say. I was going to continue because I never got to actually being flown, or used to hunt, or returned to their perch, or the longing for freedom that I imagine they feel, or the love of their human. there's so much more!
#posh https://twitter.com/tea_in_carolina/status/1233020734982754305
Are we still supposed to post proof of Twitter shares? what is the point in doing this...?
I've stopped. It got me nothing
I would have missed this! That would have been sad... I am interested in hacking micro stanzas and the punchy weight.
Such profoundness in between the minimalised sentences.
They are a lot of work actually. I think each of these took me at least a month to write. Words would come in my dreams; I think "hush" did.
Writing haiku is a super rush, maybe you would like this contest: https://steempeak.com/haikucontest/@bananafish/mizu-no-oto-every-image-has-its-haiku-edition-47-english
xo
I have never mastered micro and minimal writes. Haikus and this kinda poetry are genres I have had to read on other's poets timelines like yours.
Will give it a try though not sure I will post it though 😁
Each session has a theme that some of us try to learn. This one is about a form called haibun. It doesn't really matter if you write a haibun though. Just start. It's a great group, no pressure, like a great haiku.
It's interesting the challenges writers throw at me. You sound like @raj808 or @chinyerevivian right now! I accept this challenge for once though :D
If I fail, (which the anxiety of accepting a challenge I do miserably is letting me know that I will) it's all your faults!
There's no such thing as a failed haiku. I hope you like it. It is my favorite thing to do on steem.
Congratulations @owasco!
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Energetic feeling of raptors life in haiku, short and exceptionally descriptive.
You capture the very essence in this format of writing, well done!
Thanks so much!