Pattie Palmer-Baker

Reception is Intermittent

 

Five Ways to Look at Crows

 

Less body than ravens,
crows shine the same black magic.

When their wings graze powdered snow,
they teach us the meaning of white.

If you see the night ocean ripple in their eyes,
you will long for jewels made from obsidian.

Sleek bodies, sharp beaks, clever feet –
so deep the mystery of their black feathers!

Long ago they gathered in a murder
so large they blacked out the sun.

And night was born.

 

 

 

The Weight of Soft

 

Cold-shredded clouds down-
drift in silken motion.
Almost weightless,
each speck’s sparkle-feather touch.

And yet –

powdery glitter masses on trees
until the weight of soft bends
and breaks branches
too big to imagine.

The frozen silence explodes.

              ***

All that white –
the street is white,
the sky is white.
Even my heart is white
I could rest my head on a white mound,
let my body sink into a snow shroud
my last breath in –

white-fractured stars.

 

 

 

Pattie Palmer-Baker is an artist and poet. Over the years of exhibiting her artwork – a combination of paste paper collages and her poetry in calligraphic form – she discovered that most people do like poetry; in fact, many like the poetry better than the visual art. She now concentrates on writing. She can be reached at wpbear3311@aol.com