The Raven

The first Monday in the month is given over to poetry appreciation at Eden Court.  A small room's worth of people share their favourite poems and poets.  The topic for the next meeting is "Love" seeing as it will be February then.  I think the hope is not for too many sentimental slushy poems because of Valentine's Day.  I have had a quick google around and found nothing I would like to share with anyone.  I had a go at producing my own non-slushy love poem.

The Raven

The raven dressed in dapper black attire

Takes to the wing in dizzying display

He flicks and flips always climbing higher

And dances in an aerial ballet

Vaunting his plumage dark beneath the sun

Above the naked bones of winter trees

His choreography a poem spun

That nourishes the heart of she who sees

He has no music in his voice to sing

No notes, no melody to win her heart

He scribes his love note with each shifting wing

Boldly declaring they will never part

Long ago years they met and they mated

A bond of commitment they created

Built nests and laid eggs, nurtured their offspring

Thus celebrating - he takes to the wing

I have been reading the RSPB magazine "Nature's Home". I didn't get around to signing on for the Big Garden Birdwatch on account of not having a BIG garden.  Having been kidnapped and consigned to bed by a really bad cold I had not been able to fill the bird feeders.  Seeing there were no peanuts, seeds or suet balls to stuff their faces with the birds went elsewhere - a BIG garden, perhaps, where they were properly counted.

The "bird behaviour" article is about spring aerial displays and setting up territories and singing love songs across the wood to attract a missus. 

In amongst them all are the ravens.  The blurb reads, "Ravens pair for life, so their displays are aimed at nourishing an already established relationship."  I am sure there are quite a few species that pair for life and we all go "Ahhhh". "For life" means they stay together when his feathers go grey and her waistline expands a little.

I loved the idea of the male raven doing his aerial acrobatics not to impress a younger bird (note that I used the word "bird" in its correct context!) but to honour the one he has paired with. 

We could learn something from the ravens.