Short Osprey Poems

Andromeda covers
the osprey fledglings
with a cloud of stars...

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The plunging osprey
and the wading blue heron
hunters of the sea...

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gliding high on wing
    he surveys still water -
    osprey swoops for kill...

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The blue-gray osprey
Locks her nest
Before the
The green
Apple-picking
Season starts...

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Yellowstone Osprey
dwells in a rock cathedral
sacred in her flight
administers sacraments
to her watchers far below
...

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an osprey swoops down
     plunges talons into creek...
flies up with small fish



Date written: 03/31/2021...

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

the soaring osprey...
optimistic... spots its prey
a hungry pike strikes...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Inspired

by

Tom Cunningham...

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Wildlife 27

A newly hatched female osprey
Had a feeling she just might be gay,
Then her mother said "George!"
As she tried to disgorge,
A salmon she'd caught yesterday....

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The majestic osprey swooped down for a trout.
My husband could only shake his fist and shout!
The poor osprey was startled and fled,
But not before dropping the trout on his head!...

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The pond is quiet today
Bull frogs have had their last harrumph
The hum of the insects is gone
No dragonflies tease the wind
October’s chill hovers in the trees
An Osprey circles


John G. Lawless
©10/11/2022...

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Osprey
with it's tentacles
jutting out 
plunges 
into a shallow stream,
grabbing
a Rainbow Trout;
tantamount 
to an arrow 
hitting 
the center 
of the target!
Up and away it goes!


Date written: 10/10/2020...

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Suddenly the osprey is there
               circling diamond-tipped waves
in search of that which eludes
               us who are by nature confined~
circling higher and away
               until not a jot of it remains....

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Words in the valley       
Flies like an agile osprey      
Grasping my senses        

Words became thicker
A leaf falls as trees shudder     
Easing my numbness

Calls from the deep end
Caused words to scramble and bend
Devoured by darkness...

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Painted kestrel, ruddy hawk
Booted eagle, stoop and stalk

Pigeon here and pigeon gone
Blood and feathers stain the dawn

Prairie falcon, osprey, owl
Diurnal hunts, nightly prowls

Raptor  in the endless sky
My soul soars with you as you fly...

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A short wooden jetty
where shallow waters lap.
Taking time
to live deep in the big sky.

Fish slow swim
through cloud reflections.
Osprey seek the gleam
of silver fins.

This lake floats my mind-boat
and for a long moment
that boat is empty....

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TANGLED LINE

The Osprey returns, from the horizon
five people, strangers in the sun;
Casting to catch, beach ghosts and hidden fish;
Pipette with Ayesha each day dip, shoreline pools!
Joe and jess hear voices on the wall
New York – 2,970 miles for Rosa !...

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.
.
We walk passed the
wetland wash
in the sanctuary of birds
onto the beach.
.
We see the osprey mother
in her nest of branches
on top of famous
Target Rock;
.
and out in the sound,
the head of a black monster 
flickers back and forth 
below the moving surface....

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High and lucidly etched, a raptor,
feathers flickering in sunlight,
a thing carved,
branded in a window of space,
an osprey.

It plunges, strikes with clutching talons.
There on the face of the water
it seems to cleave
its own swooping shadow.

Then up it mounts the sky once more;
a shimmering fish
looks back at its last swim....

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A high silhouette,
lucidly etched, a raptor,
feathers flickering in sunlight,
a thing carved 
and branded in a window of space,
an osprey.

It plunges, strikes the filmy dazzle
a bristle of talons,
and there on the face of the water
it cleaves its own swooping shadow.

Then it mounts the sky once more;
 a shimmering fish 
looks back
at its last swim....

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My brother is an osprey
with an eagle arrogance
And - although he adores a forest
I have the ‘sauce’ on him - he
abhors pine bathroom spray

His eyes are fire opals of mirth
His laughter - the dusk of an 
endless Summer heat
His legs - straddle the valley of death

I picture him in a strong canoe paddling through
a river of garden flowers 
 his spirit rising with swift wings-
 and the will to fall 

 Suzanne Delaney...

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I watched a lone frill -
flitter 'neath a crescent moon.
  A chasse quite brief;
  a waltz concluding too soon.

Dusk's nocturnal breath
whirls a foliferous heart.
  A ron de jame leap
  reinvents classical art.

The plume flits and floats
beyond a stilled rivulet - 
  one rebel osprey
  escaping Swan Lake's ballet.

Tchaikovsky's cygni 
are enchanted and enrapt;
  as a chaste quill sleeps
  'pon the brim of vesper's cap....

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Ponderings

The Geese were milling around
honking incessantly
asking for directions
the swans paced
regal egg sitters
awaiting their shift
the beaver gritted his teeth
soft wood
hard winter
the river sighed
cold water
edged with ice
spring sun
challenged
the grip of winter
log sitting turtles
cheered it on
the osprey eyed
his do it yourself nest
a distant woodpecker
plays
taps at sunset


John G. Lawless
3/25/2021...

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Swans - thrump-thrumping
practice take offs and landings

Geese honk
file flight plans

Muskrats build
mud and stick domes

Beaver maintenance crews
make ready

frogs retreat
while the mud is soft

Osprey screech
above naked woods

A doe follows
a scented path

Turtles secure
their mobile homes

A woodpecker
sends Morse code alerts

The ice shell
creeps

Winter exhales
across the pond

John G. Lawless
9/25/2020...

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From the fist time I heard the call,
Of the Osprey in the air.
I knew I had a place to go,
A place where we can share,
Memories and stories
Of how our lives have been
How a boy grew into a man
And brought us back again

Life seems to come full circle
The memories of the past
Twin Lakes has been a part of him
And now it's part of us
Taking in the beauty
The broken heart will mend
Until the time the ones we love
Close the circle again....

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when my river ran into your waterfall
startled egrets and alarmed herons
reached for the sky

the claws of surprised osprey let go
of wriggling fish

for a long moment
florida became a frozen lake

you could see the stunned faces
of stopped clocks
trapped beneath the ice

when we plunged
into each other unheeding
of time and place

plastic flamingos
and pink barbie dolls
flew away
in the wide open eyes
of passing snowbirds

...

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