Snowy Owl Poem

The Snowy Owl invasion has been extraordinary this winter!  We've been blessed to have opportunities to observe, appreciate and identify these nomadic Arctic visitors!

I came across this poem and I hope you appreciate as much it as I did.




Snowy Owl Near Ocean Shores
By Duane Niatum
A castaway blown south from the arctic tundra
sits on a stump in an abandoned farmer’s field.
Beyond the dunes cattails toss and bend as snappy
as the surf, rushing and crashing down the jetty.

His head a swivel of round glances,
his eyes a deeper yellow than the winter sun,
he wonders if the spot two hundred feet away
is a mouse on the crawl from mud hole
to deer-grass patch.

An hour of wind and sleet whips the air,
nothing darts or passes but the river underground.
A North Pole creature shows us how to last.
The wind ruffles his feathers from crown to claw

while he gazes into zeroes the salt-slick rain.
As a double-rainbow before us arcs
sky and owl, we leave him surrendering
to the echo of his white refrain.

Copyright © by Duane Niatum



Good birding,
Sue