Draw-a-Bird Day: Pileated Woodpecker
Can you hear it? Earth’s
heartbeat chants in rhythm with
the drumming of birds.
I’ve been meaning to draw a woodpecker for awhile. I painted this without a sketch, so the proportions are a little off, but I think it captures the essence–the colors and the crest and long beak. I also put white on white lines for trees in the background. Pileated Woodpeckers prefer to live in old growth forests, nesting in dead trees, and their numbers declined as forests were cleared in the 19th century. But their numbers seem to be increasing again, as they adapt to new environments.
At my last residence I would see and hear red-headed woodpeckers. I haven’t seen any here, but on many weekends the African drummers are in residence at the historic mansion around the corner. Both man and bird connecting to earth’s rhythms.
Once again, Draw a Bird Day, the 8th of each month, is serving as a placeholder here at MeMadTwo while Nina takes an extended break. Come back soon Nina, and bring some birds!
In the meantime, you can find me (Kerfe) at https://kblog.blog/.
Draw a Bird Day: Golden Winged Warbler
tiny wanderer–
shrinking woodlands, flash of gold–
following your voice
The golden winged warbler is a tiny (5″) bird that is among the most endangered on a long list of endangered birds. The population has been reduced by 2/3 in the last 50 years, mostly due to habitat loss in both breeding grounds (the largest population breeds in Michigan) and wintering habitat (in Central and South America–a long migration away). They are shy, but vocal.
Once again, Draw a Bird Day, the 8th of each month, is serving as a placeholder here at MeMadTwo while Nina takes an extended break. Come back soon Nina!
In the meantime, you can find me (Kerfe) at https://kblog.blog/.
Draw-a-Bird Day: short crested coquette
I consulted with the Oracle about this tiny (3″) Mexican hummingbird, one of many of the endangered bird species of the world. Less than 1000 are estimated to exist.
I did my first sketch, above, in colored pencil, but felt the colors lacked enough vibrancy, so I painted the top one with my metallic watercolors.
Flowers grow feathered
wings humming bird poetry
air breathes spiritsong
(nowhere) to be found
it’s the alone in
the dance that makes the never
knowing so complete
Amaya at dVerse asked us to consider music that brings us to tears. There are many candidates these days, but I chose Jackson Browne’s “For a Dancer” for it’s longevity and continued relevance in that department. People, places, things…they are always “dancing in and out of view”.
And a ghazal for the song as well.
In the quiet of a summer’s afternoon I think of you
in the absence that is always in this room I think of you
My mind plays tricks and mixes up the present and the past
in memories recalled and then exhumed I think of you
Bananas peaches lemons oranges strawberries and limes
in fruit that ripens and releases its perfume I think of you
I search for guidance in the symbols of mythologies and stars
in portents that appear like ghostly runes I think of you
The fiber spun and dyed the needle waiting in my hand
in threads that cross like patterns on a loom I think of you
Sometimes I seem to recognize a voice calling and turn
in the abbreviation of my nom de plume I think of you
Pay attention to the open skies.
but who’s counting?
just another day
with another mass shooting
(thoughts and prayers optional)
It wasn’t even the top headline on the front page of the newspaper this morning.
I’ll visit the Oracle tomorrow.
posted on dVerse Open Link Night, hosted this week by Mish
Draw a Bird Day: sheltered by shadows
jeweled feathers caught
in reflected mist—cloistered
chiaroscuro
This is another brightly colored resident of the South American cloud forest, the grey-breasted mountain toucan. As with all inhabitants of the world’s cloud forests, they are a threatened species because of habitat loss.
Drawn with neocolors.
May 2019
Maia, Good Goddess:
garland the earth with bouquets–
unfold us shining
A circle grid for the new month. The flowers have arrived!
Also linking to dVerse Open Link Night.
the apple was already eaten
The human body is composed of 206 bones. But sometimes bones fuse, and the body contains less.
One in 200 humans has 13 ribs, but not all of these humans are identical in gender to Eve.
Bones are light.
Flesh lies heavy, uneasy, impermanent. Flesh apologizes for itself, asks to be concealed.
To be light.
anima opens,
immense—like Pandora’s box,
inside singing out
The Poetics theme proposed by Anmol at dVerse is Myths and Legends. My collage is based on an Alice Neel painting called Symbols, which I have always found intriguing and was lucky enough to see in an exhibit in March. That’s my photo of it above.
I’ve done a collage based on the painting before–the one, above, done in 2010, was a much more literal interpretation.
clouds
clouds increase, decrease–
signs of change thickening–
sky moving higher
Today the prompt for NaPoWriMo was to open a reference book to a random page and make a poem from what you found there. I chose to do a blackout poem from the page I opened in my Encyclopedia of Superstitions which was the one that included “clouds”.
We have a clear blue sky here in NYC though. I will enjoy running my errands today!
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