In the wee hours
as the crickets chirp
and frogs and owls converse
a forest symphony
outside my window
I am reminded why I came here
not so long ago
for the glory of the Milky Way
the Moon and all the stars
as far away from light pollution
as we could have come
for the river
for the woods
for the quiet
And on those days when I would trade
our winters for a song
I think of all the years it took
to bring me to this place
I walk the woods in gratitude
for all our many gifts
and think
perhaps
the owls feel the same
I wrote this as I went to bed last night, around 3 AM, and at least three large owls were calling to one another. One was very close, another a bit farther away, and a third I could barely hear; if there were others, they were beyond my range of hearing. The frogs, crickets and other sounds of the woods gave the background for the sound tapestry.
Interestingly, as I finished the poem, the owls apparently moved on, as if they had done their job. ;-) We have a number of different species in our woods, and I'm not certain which these were, but they were clearly larger owls.
Written 28 Sept 2015, All rights reserved.