Best Plovers Poems

The atmosphere rings with the bell like calls
of the plover flock, long before they are spotted.
The flight herringbones a grey fedora sky.
Markings of white and coal black weave,
wing-stitched, a blanket maker’s dream.

Sigh makers 	they close on the beach 
at high tide, the horizon shivers ...

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Santa Barbara, Summer 2017

Monday
I walked on the bluffs above the sea.
Orange poppies bloom in the dunes.
I discovered
the labyrinth:
smooth stones spell the path.
Peaceful pilgrimage.

Tuesday
Walked on the beach and smelled:
Tar from the oil seeps,
fennel,
coastal sage,
eucalyptus.
And, of course, the sea.

Wednesday
Hiked in the foothills.
The grass is brittle and yellow;...

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Fingers of light pierced the clouds caressing the moors
with life giving warmth, purples, browns and greens of
heathers mingled, blended, in a union of beauty. Yellow
of gorse splashed in the sultry, hazy spectre of natures
superb canvas. The dry stone walling lay sporadic, lost,
decaying in time and...

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Seven Birds in Spring


Sparrow in late snow
Gathers straw to make her nest
Afraid to be last.

A dash of swallow
Almost faster than the songs
Of Spring returning.

Baby birds chirping
The nest full with mother’s warmth
Life renewed- the same.

Swallows hit the pond
A quick drink or bugs to eat
Do I need...

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So you're stuck on 15-down for the name of a barren of mules!
Groups of creatures you can now name if you use this set of...

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SONG OF THE EVENING

In a lullaby song of the evening.
In the background a cricket sings, 
corellas fly past, to their resting tree
high upon silhouette wings.

Red sky widens and covers the west
with half sun glowing and gold,
there’s stark contrast between heaven and earth
as life in a...

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All that does encompass bespeaks wonder in everything
bubbling brooks and waterfalls does your glory ring
terrestrial and celestial ever fill our eyes with seeing
how can not it's splendor not fill our very being
 
raindrops in waters with their rippling wake
and mesmerize our souls does the rushing...

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The beach gathers its dead. Thousands of horseshoe crabs
come home on the full moon’s tide. Their courting dances, 
scrawled with claw and carapace in the wet sand, leave
with the ghost hands of nursing Autumn wave.

Their nests of jewel-colored eggs, covered and soothed
seasoned in salt sea,...

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As the year thunders on the autumn days begin to get shorter the nights are early,
My old dog stretches out by a blazing log fire only turning over when he's too hot,
Arthritis is slowing him down his hips are so sore he walks very slowly...

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Our lusty voice was in the tramp of narrow, winding,
     Scree-littered, deep-rutted roads;     
 Ravens, uttering guttural croaks, slow-wheeling above      
   Vast, resonating, steeply plunging gorges;    ...

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At noon we sat down under a large old oak tree on a wild hillside with masses of rocks,
The day was very warm and I took off my knapsack and rested by the foot of an old tree,
Below was a spread of orchards, next to...

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I walk barefoot on the beach
Where the water greets the land.
Waves with their wet fingers reach,
Then retreat from where I stand.
White foam fizzles on the sand.

I pick up some rocks and shells,
Watch the shorebirds dive and fly
As the ocean ebbs and swells,
Plovers skitter, seagulls cry,
Soundless...

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Tender tides sneak to smooch the smooth shore
that holds our footsteps left behind us,
and lends itself to sand castles
standing guard until high tide.
Plovers dart on fleet feet
across sodden sand.
Pebbly and pure,
soft, wet, cool..
beigy,
tan.



Susan Ashley
July 18, 2017


(June 29, 2017)...

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Hand in hand with the breaking pink light of dawn, 
A light east breeze dances on tiptoes upon the water’s surface. 
I stand on the wooden deck, looking out onto the quiet bay,
Scattered boats gently sway in their moorings.

Making me feel like I am flying...

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Oh majestic peaks,

standing so tall,

the points never meager,

uplifting like the beautiful dowager.

~*~

The greenery covers,

like a flock of plovers,

and a blanket of fibrous wicker,

near the rocky slopes that flicker.

~*~

The sunlight is poking through,

and a wall of clouds of suspended dew,

a stand of conifers abridged,

growing across the...

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