Photograph: Mark Brown, Boston Globe
What a treat! A poet who follows this blog just sent me two lovely poems about a snowy owl she once saw. Or perhaps I should say, she once experienced. She would appreciate feedback on the poems, so please let me know your reactions in the Comments feature. E-mail is fine, too, suzannesmom@lunandstella.com. (And if you have a photo of a snowy owl in flight, I will replace the rather contemplative owl from National Geographic, below.)
Snowy Owl, by Nancy Greenaway
White shuttle of silken feathers
wefting across cloud warp of winter gray,
silently weaving sky with sea,
looming above watching walkers
tucked between patchworks
of stone-bound fields
and folds of silvered awe.
Snowy Owl 2, by Nancy Greenaway
Wide-winged whiteness
sensed before seen
swooping soundlessly
under low-lying layers
of cloud gauze
white on white
white on gray
soft on soft
too large to be living
and airborne
too white to be
worldly and wild
floating unruffled
on drafts of arctic cold
piercing consciousness
not with bill
or talon
or quill
but with light
and motion
avian divinity
spirited from
another dimension
penetrating dusk
by force of feathers
