Pheasant

Pheasant

Pick a poem from the Plath Poetry Project's Calendar and write a response to it.  I chose her poem The Pheasant, in honour of the pheasants who regularly visit our garden bird feeders. Plath's poem used a verse form of 3 line verses, each line having around 9 syllables;  my response follows the same format.

The birds are fed in our garden
All through the hard winter months
Spring breeding, summer feeding, and autumn

The feeders hang in the lilac tree
Birds perch in its branches waiting
Their turn for the sunflower hearts.

Goldfinches, bullfinches, chaffinches,
Pick out each seed, find its plump heart
Tossing  its husk onto the ground.

Then, with a clatter and whirring of wings
The pheasant appears over the hedge
Calling out its loud chock - chock greeting.

He visits the feeders throughout the day
Strutting through the undergrowth
Pacing slowly, with meticulous care

Beady eyes searching this way and that
Gobbling discarded husks and specks of fat
Like a beautiful vacuum cleaner.

All found he hops to the herb garden
To mop up stray insects for dessert.
He stands replete, surveying his valley

Then lifts off clumsily into the air
With another defiant chock- chock
And whirring of wings, he is gone.




© Copyright 2018. Chris Auger. All Rights Reserved



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