The Silver Sage
Are you ready? Come on along and read some homespun poetry as well as a jot and tittle regarding distinguished poets and their works. Gael offers a positive balance of her own nostalgia notes and poetic meanderings with those of others. [Editor's note: Gael no longer contributes to Silver Planet, but we have made her archived blog entries available as a service to our readers.]
The Woodpecker
For more than a week I had listened to the very loud rat-a-tat-tat of a woodpecker making a mad assault somewhere nearby. The next thing I saw was my elderly neighbor balancing precariously on a ladder in a desperate attempt to mount a birdhouse at second-floor level.
“I’m trying to divert a woodpecker,” she cheerfully called, after seeing the look on my face. I can only imagine how loud the sound of drill, hammer, and thrum must have been from inside her house.
People in my community tend to accommodate displaced wildlife. Even the ambitious Mr. Woodpecker’s habitat has been diminished by the onslaught of humanity. This obstreperous fellow will merrily attack metal, stucco, wood, and even glass on occasion—any surface seems a fair enough pecking place to him.
What an interesting creature is he!
Woodpeckers and poetry seem meant for one another. Kentucky poet and novelist Elizabeth Madox Roberts, who wrote wonderful nature poems, composed the following gem circa 1922.
| The Woodpecker |
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The woodpecker pecked out a little round hole One day when I watched he poked out his head, When the streams of rain pour out of the sky, And the big, big wheels of thunder roll, by Elizabeth Madox Roberts
1881–1941 |
For you writers, scribes, and poets, who know the power of the written word, let me hear about your favorite bird poem—or perhaps a comment on your favorite Elizabeth Madox Roberts work?
By Gael Stuart
The Silver Sage Blog
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The Woodpecker
I really like the blogs and I am glad I found this site. I did not know many others read Elizabeth Maddox Roberts, now I know she is famous. But as a kid the woodpecker poem was the first I had to learn by memory in gradeschool, that wasn't all that much fun!
Hello,
Feel free to send me your favorite Elizabeth Roberts poem. I would like to hear more from you.
The Silver Sage