Today’s Poetry Friday is hosted by Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
Winter has settled in here in the North Country. Some days are all brilliant sunshine, sparkling snow, and clear blue skies as far as the eye can see. And some days (most days it seems, when I am feeling low) are dreary and grey, when the sun can manage nothing more than a reluctant presence here and there.
The pastures and barnyard and covered in thigh high drifts of ice hardened snow, and Sophie, who loved tunneling through snow in her suburban New Jersey life, now sticks to cleared paths. No longer the companion eager to explore pastures and woods, she prefers to spend her winter days by the woodstove, gazing into the dancing flames or blissfully asleep. Perhaps she, too, is dreaming of Spring.
The busiest spots around the farmhouse these days seem to be the bird feeders. I love watching all varieties of songbirds flit to and fro, no matter how stormy or bleak the day. Yes, it’s still Winter…but Spring, inevitably, is also on its way…
Blue by Barbara Crooker
Dull morning, dove-colored sky, black trees.
Winter at its most monochrome. Months
until spring; don’t even think about it. Then
squawk, there’s a jay, a pure blue verb
landing on the feeder. And suddenly, you see
delphiniums, larkspur, hydrangeas.
And suddenly, even sorrow is bearable.
Going to Walden.z 
We have moved the opposite way of you, it would seem. Shorter winter, shorter snow…and my dog loves the deep snow to leap in and over, but there’s no tall snow here in PA.
Love “there’s a jay, a pure blue verb” in Barbara Crooker’s poem.
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Sigh, Barbara Crooker’s poems always get right to the heart of things, don’t they? Lovely poem, especially the “pure blue verb.” You are lucky to have bird feeders (we can’t because of too many aggressive squirrels).
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I, too, love Crooker’s way of telling us the way of seeing. That ‘pure blue verb’ is really wonderful, Tara. Though winter is here, we have much to love in our Colorado sun. Wishing you your own sunshine soon!
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That pure blue verb. Changes everything doesn’t it? I love the surprise in this poem.
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Like the others, I like that “pure blue verb.” The ending, too, is wonderful. Wishing you snow with a sparkle, and a bit of sparkle for your eyes 🙂
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I’ll never look at a blue jay in winter the same way again! I’ll always see the spring and summer blues hidden in his feathers!!
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Thank you for sharing this lovely poem, Tara. The birds bring me joy as well. We have plenty of “pure blue verb[s]” visiting, along with vivid red cardinals. I wonder what part of speech they should be?
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Swooning with everyone else over that “jay, a pure blue verb” – what a delight. Your environs always look so gorgeous, Tara, though I am personally too much of a Southerner to weather those winters! Our tiny Chihuahua is offended and shivery when the mercury dips below 70… ;0)
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I love that line; ‘a pure blue verb’ – such sparkle and energy it has. I’m trying to imagine snow as depressing. In my head it is all silver sparkle magic. But I guess it’s a bit like our flood season… when everything is washed to shades of grey. (Actually, we’re in need of a flood season – and would welcome the grey days and green shoots!)
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I watched a “pure blue verb” on a grey tree last weekend–he joined a “round red exclamation mark” of a woodpecker on a snowy log. I recently asserted that I would rather be blind than deaf because MUSIC, but then how would I speak without the VERBS! of color?
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Beautiful poem, I especially love the last line!
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Yes! “Pure blue verb” is brilliant.
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Like everyone else, I adore “a pure blue verb.” And then the flower images that suddenly pop up. Thinking about this poem made me decide to write a haiku about the preening hummingbird outside my kitchen window.
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Thank you for reminding me of this poem. On my walk yesterday, I took a photo that was such shades of blue. Love your photo.
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