David Gross is a retired journeyman carpenter & poet living in the hills of southern Illinois.
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Lovely image & true to the bittern experience: I remember the awe & mystery (the secret) of seeing
my first bittern in the California Central Valley. Nice!
I imagine something has just startled the bitterns, causing them to stand perfectly still with necks stretched upwards in order to blend with the marsh vegetation, effectively making them 'become' reeds. But I wonder what secret is being kept…it's an intriguing first line. What could the birds have witnessed in the marshland? The reader is left to imagine a narrative.
Wonderful poem! And they are fantastic at camouflage aren't they! I love the line break!
bitterns become
reeds
Great haiku!
.
Never seen a bittern in the wild, so I'm envious, but have had haiku published in the fantastic illustrated Inking Bitterns (Gert Macky Books December, 2013) ISBN-10: 0992678315 ISBN-13: 978-0992678319.
re secrets:
dirty secrets
my lifeline speckled
in leaf light
Alan Summers
Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)
.
secret garden
a clue to everything
lies with the crows
Lovely image & true to the bittern experience: I remember the awe & mystery (the secret) of seeing
my first bittern in the California Central Valley. Nice!
Thanks, Bruce.
__ Ah David, those rules of nature so well imagined; the life of one, another's food. _m
small fish
swim within these reeded legs
another life.
Thank you, Magyar.
I imagine something has just startled the bitterns, causing them to stand perfectly still with necks stretched upwards in order to blend with the marsh vegetation, effectively making them 'become' reeds. But I wonder what secret is being kept…it's an intriguing first line. What could the birds have witnessed in the marshland? The reader is left to imagine a narrative.
marion
keeping their secret
bitterns become
reeds
—DAVID GROSS
Wonderful poem! And they are fantastic at camouflage aren't they! I love the line break!
bitterns become
reeds
Great haiku!
.
Never seen a bittern in the wild, so I'm envious, but have had haiku published in the fantastic illustrated Inking Bitterns (Gert Macky Books December, 2013) ISBN-10: 0992678315 ISBN-13: 978-0992678319.
re secrets:
dirty secrets
my lifeline speckled
in leaf light
Alan Summers
Does Fish-God Know (YTBN Press 2012)
.
secret garden
a clue to everything
lies with the crows
Alan Summers
Mainichi Shimbun, Japan (July 2016)