Red-eyed Aurora

Dawn arrives
as a toddler
on the threshold,

full of infectious laughter
and
energy for the
tired workers.

The sky is alive!
Blues-scarlets-reds
colour the
waters,
a new art-work
is daily created
by a hand, mysterious.

Eos,
rosy-fingered once
as seen
by Homer, Hesiod and ancestors

inspired
Monets and Turners, among others.

In an age of wild fires
changing seasons
climate extremes,

she
gasps in the smog
but
continues daily visits
cheering up the
birds
and animals.

Sunil Sharma

Shift Change

The sun’s sleepy eye peeps
over the horizon,
reminding owls their shifts
are done, time to leave
their posts on light poles,
cease hoo-hoo-hooing.
As owl song fades,
the day-shift birds punch in.
Meadowlarks whistle sweet
and gurgle at the coming light.
Robins crystal wistful whistle
brightens up the gloomy skies.
Sparrows chirp and rasp hello.
Goldfinches warble crisp and short.
Crows caw caw! caw!
caaaawwww!
Blue jays scream and screech.
Without conductor
this mad chorus ushers
morning in.

Nolcha Fox
Website: https://bit.ly/3bT9tYu

IT IS NOT ABOUT DAWN

It is about that moment
before the dark time breaks,
being present in the silence,
standing still in an exact moment.
It is all about when that first bird sings,
first light,
the fact that there is an order
that layer upon layer
sculpts the day’s beginning.

It is about discovering how long it takes
before the crow starts to echo back
with his rough
cruck, cruck.

DAWN CHORUS

Your bed was a lazy lover,
warm and familiar, holding you.

Yet soon the birds would be waking,
mapping out a set of songs
to greet the moon-washed sky.

I waited for you to free yourself
to stand and listen as the mist thinned
so we, too, could welcome the new day.

Sue Finch

Solfège

I hear the morning rise above the light
bells of the garden-chime, sounds
swing in vocable colours, vibrating
rainbow hues.

Somewhere outside the wind
tones are playing; soft-pitched
syllables and timbres diffuse.

On the lone wooden stave
that props up the washing-line,
a solitary blackbird is singing
the blues.

Louise Longson

A blanket of orange fire
illuminates the sky
not a soul to be seen
as birds murmur distant songs
and a river reflects
the power of a sun
glowing in all it’s majesty

Francis Powell

Sunrise Concertante

Burnt golden rays break
the night-time sky,
beating on the Ouse’s slow crawl.

Air-warmed sweet-grasses
fan fragrance into the wind:
marsh marigolds shine.

A blackbird’s
chromatic glissando sweeps

towards the riverbank.

Swanking his red tuxedo, a robin
trills to join the recital

as elm silhouettes dance,
watching their mirror image.

The mistle thrush flaunts
his speckled belly. He takes his turn
to chant – introduces

hedge sparrows who chatter,
boast brown suits.

A cadenza call governs the concerto–
plump skylark makes his solo in the skies.

Shades of light peep,
geese chevron across the blue,
noses down, necks stretched, wings

spread wide. Honking their signal sound,
they climb the horizon and sky-fall
on to daylight’s iridescent waves.

Patricia M Osborne

A Dawn Chorus (Vacana 11)

O, Lady of the Breath.
how to arc in your air?

A dozen or more tiny caves
sing you into the world

from the trillbudded barkskin
volume and delivery

a root that connects with
its origin tree,

broadcasts to my ears,
territory songs,

and chat up lines, a Saturday
night on the town played out

on a morning before the wormshop,
home repair, teach bairns how to fly,

Paul Brookes

Bios and Links

Sue Finch’s

debut collection, ‘Magnifying Glass’, was published in 2020. Her work has also appeared in a number of online magazines. She loves the coast, peculiar things and the scent of ice-cream freezers. You can often find her on Twitter @soopoftheday.

Louise Longson

Late-blooming poet Louise Longson started writing ‘with intent’ in 2020. Now aged 60, she has been widely published both in print and online. She is the author of the chapbooks Hanging Fire (Dreich Publications, 2021) and Songs from the Witch Bottle (Alien Buddha Press, 2022). She works from her home in a small rural village on the fringes of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire offering a listening service to people whose physical and emotional distress is caused by loneliness and historic trauma and abuse. Her poems are inspired by bringing together her personal and work experiences, often seen through the twin prisms of myth and nature.
Twitter @LouisePoetical

Patricia M Osborne

Sarasvati Magazine (Indigo Dreams) Published 2017
Taxus Baccata (Hedgehog Poetry Press) Published 2020
Ingénue Magazine Published 2020

About Patricia M Osborne

Patricia M Osborne is married with grown-up children and grandchildren. In 2019 she graduated with an MA in Creative Writing. She is a published novelist, poet and short fiction writer with five poetry pamphlets published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press, and numerous poems and short stories appearing in various literary magazines and anthologies. Her debut poetry pamphlet, Taxus Baccata, was nominated for the Michael Marks Pamphlet Award.

Patricia has a successful blog at Whitewingsbooks.com featuring other writers. When Patricia isn’t working on her own writing, she enjoys sharing her knowledge, acting as a mentor to fellow writers.