Photograph – Chris Sims
From the shimmering poems written in response to the beautiful photograph above, the readers have chosen Poem 6, The Peacock’s Song by Susan Castillo. Congratulations to Susan and thanks everyone for the poems submissions and for voting.
Poem 1
Anthropic Principle?
Does it all come down to this?
Look at the feather with two shades of blue;
Deep blue of distant galaxies
Seen through sky and sky blue.
Does it all come down to this
In a feathered field on a blue planet
Where something perfect forms? When it
Attracts an eye this is
What it’s blue beauty means
And the future starts. Are such sexual scenes
Accidental or meant? First, look
Then, look coyly away.
Either way they aren’t for you,
These scenes, this blue.
Then what does sky mean, the galaxies,
The blue, if it all comes down to this?
Michael Docker
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Poem 2
Indifferent Iridescence
Look at the centre of my vanity
The heart-shaped core of my breeding plumage
Amongst the common backdrop of your life
For I am special, regal, distinguished
I am more than you, purely by my looks
Yet I add no value, just eye candy
I do not cure the sick or afflicted
I don’t educate nor feed the needy
I can’t stop the floods, famines or the droughts
Answers to the Universe are not here
Nor will you find answers to anything
Yet you’ll always be impressed and love me
Kevin Eagles
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Poem 3
Silk and Feather Kisses
Is it enough to be a bird
no embellishment required
beady-eyed-beak giving point
to a face with only one expression
better to be naked under feathers
than naked with feathers
like those flirty-eyed girl-women
dancing in twilight and diamonds
faces set in the relentless smile
of hopeless predation?
Daphne Milne
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Poem 4
Indian Rajah
Even a peacock
With his lapis lazuli crown
Must cross desiccated
Whispering savannas.
To frighten off
Those sleek assassin tigers
He trails a thousand glorious sapphire eyes
Upon his sweeping train.
Lizzie Ballagher
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Poem 5
The last Dance
Dreams scatter in the sky
Red finger nails grasping
Stretching, never reaching
Never understood in its femininity
Then the rain
Washing dreams and rainbows
Washing life
What was left of it
Bringing relief to the pain
And the numbered hours
Lying still
Waiting for the sunshine
Then it came
Bright and warm
And he danced
Twirling in slow motion
In all his splendour
And radiance
He did not fall
But gently moved into the shadows
Leaving behind
Just the essence of glory
Anita Pinto
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Poem 6
The Peacock’s Song
Juno stands on tiptoe, reaches to the sky
to touch my iridescent feathers
garlanded with starry eyes.
My jeweled plumage shimmers, floats
down to the forest floor.
She tells me not to envy nightingales,
even though they fill the night
with shimmering clouds of notes
and I am left alone with my harsh cry.
Susan Castillo
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Poem 7
Mrs Peacock
She could be any bird in plain and dowdy clothes.
No one would trace her paces creeping round the place.
He’d only one intention:- notch her on his post
and grab her admiration, sleeping round his place.
Beguiled at first, she found he took her breath away.
His charming ways were spent in sweeping round the place.
Then came the hours of loneliness when he stayed out,
her utter desolation, weeping round the place.
Her eyes grew dark as pansy hearts each time he strayed.
She hatched a plan that set her leaping round the place.
The knife was sharp and silent. There’s a feather sign
abandoned in the grass grown deep around his place.
Sue Spiers
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Poem 8
Wordless Whispers…
Accept this feather as my indelible gift,
Before the hurricane steals its joy.
Love embedded in its coloured shape,
Soft wind blows through big blue stems.
And let brightness of fragrance speak,
I am just like the feather to wither someday.
Denim Deka
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Eyespot
You swished so many
in your Beau Brummel tail
a single feather snagged,
fell loose
as it combed the grass.
It won’t stay unnoticed.
A morning stroller
will covet its flamboyance,
carry it home,
keep it in a jar
by the window
where season after season
its proud unblinking blue
will eye garden birds
flying their downy
new browns.
Sheila Jacob
