Wednesday, April 4, 2018

"A Southern Song"



A Southern Song

I share the night
with scurrying Ghost Crabs
and Chuck-Will’s Widows
swooping beachside dunes.

Stay just out of reach
of Tide’s rise and fall, 
yet follow with glee 
her chasing of spring’s moon

as my footprints,
temporary musical notes 
born of shifting sands,
explore shore & shoals 
beneath a waning gibbous.

Tonight I sing a southern song,
this northern girl
so easily charmed with day’s
salt marsh mudflats & flooded grasses
filled with mockingbirds, egrets, & herons.

I’m a bit fickle, 
seemingly fall in love so easily,
swoon like an inexperienced schoolgirl
when a young beau nibbles her ear.

Yet this is how I feel 
as I tilt my chin skyward,
close my eyes, embrace the poem
that flirts before me, not blushing,
but anticipating the thrill of discovery. 

by Margaret Bednar, April 4, 2018


This is my daughter beachside, sunset. 

This is linked with “Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Transformtions”. I really did try and follow the rules but I guess I kept derailing and this is the result.  It’s not that I have so many “selves” - I write poetry more about what I see and how it makes me feel.  Im not that “complex”. A northern country girl, a bit shy yet most people would never guess that  ...  anyway.  This is a hard prompt and I did try - yet I look forward to reading what others do with this when I get back from vacation.  I’m sure you all will excel!

I will be on spring break for the first few days of April and will schedule my poems in advance - I am unable to figure out how (if I even can) visit and comment on my phone's "BlogTouchPro" app ...
I can post but Mr. Linky does not show up.   

So I thank you all for visiting me and commenting and I promise I will visit and comment when I return.  

A joyous Easter to all those who celebrate.

14 comments:

Kerry O'Connor said...

I have always experienced your poetry as being the voice of natural beauty, tender motherhood and grace. Long may it ring out.

Brendan said...

This is a perfect response to the challenge, Margaret: it is one thing to iterate the selves, another to enter one and sing it so deeply and freely. What is poetry but that lens that sees so sharply, finely with the heart? Well done.

Sanaa Rizvi said...

Love this! Especially; "Stay just out of reach of Tide’s rise and fall,
yet follow with glee her chasing of spring’s moon." Beautifully penned.

Ellecee said...

This is a lovely write, perfect for our challenge, I especially like “try and absorb the poem that floats before me” :-)

brudberg said...

I love the sense of the poem of nature being a flirtatious lover... up here in the north, nature almost always is more a rapist... but there are those days when I feel transported to a place like yours.

Gillena Cox said...

The last stanza is my favourite

much love...

Rosemary Nissen-Wade said...

Ah, you're another like Kim and me!

Anonymous said...

Tis indeed as others have said a song of you. I love how elemental it is.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

I love the southern song you sing here. Beautiful.

tonispencer said...

Being a southern girl, I totally relate. Having spend many many months at the beach (the Crystal Coast) I totally relate. I love your image of a poem as flirtatious nature. I love every line of this.

Anonymous said...

as my footprints,
temporary musical notes

~ and so should your soul sing, in all of the softer edges and curiosities that tease, tickle and please your senses!

why the hell not? for as easy as we are with ourselves, we can also find our own grounding within a world of possibilities ~ to observe, note, create and just be and breathe.

lovely and lyrical - a delightful lightness in this piece ~ which is a wonderful slice of you to always carry within your heart and share with others

annell4 said...

You remind me of my home...

Kim M. Russell said...

Your poem has such a gentle lilt to it, Margaret. I can smell the sea in it and hear the rise and fall of the tide. A delightful southern song!

Susie Clevenger said...

You have such a beautiful connection to nature and can translate it perfectly into poetry.