Best Guinea Fowl Poems
a guinea fowl
molting polka dot feathers—
handmade earrings
© February 21, 2012
Dane Ann Smith-Johnsen
Written for Poetry Soup Member Contest: Juxtaposition Haiku
Sponsored by: Charles Henderson
http://www.honoluluzoo.org/guineafowl.htm
They have command on me
my posture has been so
since birth and even now
a grown up, no change
The back has followed
the legs are going there
why can’t a guinea fowl
produce penguins, swans?
Why is choice in nature
so elusive, so limited?
Why can’t I become really
what I admire in nature?
I want to be free to be happy
but I’m condemned to be
a bent bow without arrows!
Springtime put a spring in my step
Bluebird brought bright bars of music next
I saw her sip at the faithful fountain; sing soulfully
As I prayed: wishing the world was well, more certain
About the value of various voices: bird, boy, girl, gadfly ...
I threw something out the window, absent-mindedly
What happened next is sad, sadder still, all birds are hurting ...
For you see, what I threw out so absent-mindedly
Was a careless word: "Shush, shush, you sing the same old song!"
Bluebird looked and looked, a long minute without a note -
And as silently as she had surrendered her songs at my abode
She flew off in a fluttery flummox. She has not been seen
Near me. I have been so sorry since, prayed in between -
But my vicinity may welcome the Trinity, but not birds this season
A word - my careless words - have wounded wren and robin
Bluejay and finch, Baltimore Oriole and Barn Owl ...
They stay away ... And the Mockingbird sent word with Guinea Fowl
That I am a moody man, melodramatic, even erratic
(Birds have forgiven; they have fathomed I'm a fettered hummingbird).
In many colours I come and many places inhabit
when in South America crabs are my favourite
I chase them with great glee and delicately
Their flesh pick out of their shells and pincers
Come to Africa, when I reside here I have bat ears
that swivel around as I listen for my prey
a tasty rabbit, a guinea fowl even just a mouse
I hide any excess and return to dine in leisure
When living in Russia I am silver in colour
a thick pelt and bushy tail which I display
with such great pride to attract the vixens
then in a matter of weeks new cubs join me
England not quite so cool here the hunt
dogs baying for my blood as I am chased
uphill and down dale, cunningly I head downstream
then hide up in some trees, yes I can climb them
Arctic is where I the Alopex live with my tiny ears
to help me not to lose too much heat in the snowy Tundras
here I eat whatever I can even a fish when it's salmon run
with my vixen we share the raising of four to eleven cubs
Known world wide as cunning and sly, I am a survivor
overcoming different adversities as they arise
Reynard is the name most men know and curse me by
especially if I have raided their chicken coops
As I was looking through the window
Something caught my eye...
A small group of Guinea Fowl
Went running by!
Their nature is quite humorous.
The speed they move is great!
I watch with fascination
As their next move I anticipate...
When I try to take a photograph,
Their backs they quickly turn!
But with patience and determination
A capture I will earn.
Oh Father
Please help us
For we have done wrong
That day in Bole
When we let stones fly
The dead guinea fowl
We roasted & ate
On the way to Kananto
the cripple we mocked
We won’t let up
Till he had cried
On the street in Bolga
We caught a thief
We lashed & slashed
Till he was dead
Oh Father
Won’t you help us
We have done wrong
What of the day
Bright and sunny
On a beach in Saltpond
The drowned we didn’t help
And as for you
Our foe Kookoko
We can hear your cry
In our torture chamber
Your sister gave us
Diamonds
But we still took
your life
Oh Father
Please help us
For we have done wrong
FLAME OF ASCENSION
No-one can escape Flame of Ascension
a glance, a glimmer, a gestalted shadow
ghosts or gestures guarded Hearts to
genteel progress on a path
It nightmares numskulls and nuns alike
coffins cords, corners chains conniving
Thumb tips touch those of Serapis Bey
tippling white Flames in quantum space
as he passes with poignant eyes
“Where must sparks sagely sail now
Great Chohan of Central Sun ?”
“To those with neptunium nerves
those who have mastered their minds
who stare over lambert lagoons
lbis eyed
those who will not hasten to
taste Tophet flesh, toxined tongues
or squirm to struggle stormy seas
who live on one orange a day
from oozing boxes to city sites
Let Ascension Flame sparks fly fivefold
to those who chore by candlelight
in basements cold
gather guinea-fowl feathers in damp
dawn to create wise woman wands
to those who forgive an impoverished
rapist in a fitful farm hut
fathoming his fishtail hands
Let Ascension Flame sparks sail to those
who embrace Polar Bear spirit
stirring soup for a repentant soul
covering it with furs
flasking it’s folly !”
No-one can flee Flame of Ascension
someday it fleeces all spectroscopically
pay with sweat of your sweat
palsy, petty or posh
breath upon baptising breath
no strut or scintillating stumble
skin to self-assuming skin
spectacular sundew sing
Flame of Ascension extracts due fuchsia
fragrance from filament files
harp harmonies heightened to
a hastened hypnosis from an inexplicable
white heart field
Come
Let Flame of Ascension flower
fiddling fingers into interlinking
intercurrents of Infinity’s intimacy !
©GhairoDanielsPoetry&Song
HOW CAN I PRETEND ?
PART 3
Pretence lies coffined
as Spring makes a call
early chincherinchees
kissing late winter’s wind
knowing empty cupboards
will be filled once more
perceptions of another
timeline where artful
wiles and emotionless
inserts receive no nods
of approval
My Love stands oaked
in cerebral signature
unashamedly chiffon
unmoved before
North-South, East-West
Buddha and Serapis in a
visiting vitalising hug
I can turn another way
it is no longer rot I
have to transmute for a
hidden litre of milk which
Magdalened I easily
found, crooked nails
still blooming morning
glories or geraniums or
rescuing some lavender
shoots from resultant
turmoils of deceit wherever
Beloved sends this one
she cannot pretend
How can I not tear layers
when this was written
with guinea fowl quills
in Merlin’s wooded
enclave where he fed
nasturtium, fresh figs
alongside almond
nectared nectarines
whilst giving last minute
lessons in alchemising
migraine and manic
depression ?
So finally I stand in my
powerful ancestral truth
accepting all parts of my
sick sob stories sad
including painting limbo
lesbians who enticed
leaps from my tender
heart then drew daring
daggers as only Christ
lingered above oozing His
“Don’t Fear, Sweet !
They know not what
they do”
Pretence lies coffined
Cold
©GhairoDanielsPoetry&
Song2024
WOMB WORDS
Womb ! Mother of All, what sayeth you
knowing activation before birth
births through girths, a Q ?
~ ‘I see rainmakers smoking pipes
drink from ostrich eggs fresh
then hike wearing silver Nikes
embryo cells magically multiply
hearing guinea fowl cackle on high
kicking sensations, baby legs sigh
atoms alight travel from mom to babe
life witnesses itself languidly lacing
almost due, a beautiful hue
womanhood elastic expands happy rosy
she is cow peace or yappy puppy cosy
who will give sweet milk, play with baby gay
while father on maroon
patterned mat prays every day’ ~
I birth in agony and ecstasy entwined
welcoming a caramel soul
divine !