The Stepping Stones to Eternity — from Flowering Poverello
From the Flowering Poverello blog, a poetry sequence which, for some reason, especially resonated. I will let it speak for itself, except the resonance began with the opening lines “I…
Category: birds
Review of “Curlew Moon”, Mary Colwell
Back in the days leading up to World Curlew Day I posted various curlew-related posts. One way on “Curlew Moon” by Mary Colwell. Rather shamefacedly, I must admit I had not read…
“Birds of the Air”, Sharron Krauss
This haunting song reminds me of the eerie folk of the seventies – especially, for some reason, Magnet’s ‘Willow’s Song” from The Wicker Man (if you have seen the movie…
David Monacchi: “Fragments of Extinction”, the sounds of vanishing nature
With the prospect of mass extinction in the news, it seems a good time to reflect on the loss of soundscapes. In Ireland, the corncrake and the curlew were once…
“Circle”, a poem by Holly Day
via Rabid Oak, Issue 12, a poem about recurrence in history. And crows: History gathers up in a swirl of images seemingly unconnected as individual incidents clumping together to form a…
The Birds of Castle Espie
I haved blogged before about WWT Castle Espie, Co. Down. Another visit over Easter re-confirmed just how wonderful a place it is for a family day out. It is also…
Curlews in The Thirty-Nine Steps
John Buchan’s thrillers are not exactly politically correct by today’s standards, but contain many gems of prose – especially on the natural world and on the cares of power. There is…
Henry Williamson on Curlews: From “Tarka the Otter”
From Tarka the Otter Within the moor is the Forest, a region high and treeless, where sedge grasses grow on the slopes to the sky. In early summer the wild…
Séamus Sweeney 