V E R S E and I M A G E

Always

when you look up

at white clouds, blue sky,

you see

that hyphen of a bird,

not flying but floating,

silently

keeping two worlds

you imagine apart, together,

connecting

earth to sky,

life to death.

Closer,

we see the hunched neck,

bald head, vulture stoop

as something that gives us

chills.

from An Augury of Birds, forthcoming from Redhawk Publications; poems by Scott Owens, photography by Clayton Joe Young

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The naturalist Robert Lynd is quoted as saying, “In order to see birds it is necessary to become a part of the silence.” How often do we actually pause and participate in silence? Become part of it? Sunday afternoon Linda and I had hiked a couple of miles along the Mountains-to-Sea Trail when we came face to face with friends we hadn’t seen since before COVID. They were hiking in from the opposite direction but our destination was the same: the Forest Bathing trail along Grassy Creek.

We continued on together. We outpaced noisier hikers; they turned back and left us in solitude. The thrum of voices at the winery and of pickups on Route 21 receded. We stopped – a gentle murmur of water flowing over the new beaver dam. Stopped again – breezes swishing through fresh Joe Pye Weed along the creek. As the trail led us up and away from the water, we left the laurel and holly and entered a glade of slender young tuliptree still recovering from logging. Our friend stopped us once more. She had taken off her sandals to feel the earth. Late afternoon sunlight streamed slant among the saplings and we were part of the silence. A vireo sang. She raised her arms and said, “This is what I came here for.”

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If we create silence, within us and around us, air and earth will magnify the silence with beauty. Birds will complete the silence with wing whirr and song. Here’s an invitation to silence, offered to us in the poems and photographs of An Augury of Birds. Scott Owens and Clayton Joe Young reward our held breath and contemplative approach with their avian celebration. They make these feathered creatures our companions – individual, distinctive, ripe with purpose. And Augury is such an apt title. Wasn’t Rachel Carson’s prophecy of a silent spring the spark that ignited our current fire of conservation and environmentalism? Noticing birds is a gateway to noticing the universe. Lift the latch, enter these pages, become part of these lives – If you close your eyes / you can hear the cosmos opening.

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If it happens that you find yourself

at the front of a room full of people

listening to all you have to say

about what you think you know

and suddenly you hear

from an open window

you hadn’t even noticed was open

the voice of a mockingbird

as clear as the voice of God

singing in every language at once

you owe it to yourself

and all with the possibility of hearing

to stop in the almost silence

and say out loud, Listen

from An Augury of Birds, forthcoming from Redhawk Publications; poems by Scott Owens, photography by Clayton Joe Young

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Long fingers of catalpa trees,

Green globes of apples

Hang low over Licklog Road.

White crowns of Queen Anne’s lace,

Orange umbels of butterfly weed

Fill a field where flycatchers

Dart from limb to grass

and back, consuming

Whatever rises. Swallows

Carve endless angles across

The tops of weeds let go.

Brown headed cowbirds

Follow white-faced cows

Near a lake surrounded

By mountains in a place

Where everyone waves

And everyone remembers

What it means to live.

from An Augury of Birds, forthcoming from Redhawk Publications; poems by Scott Owens, photography by Clayton Joe Young

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An Augury of Birds will be published by Redhawk Press in 2024. Check HERE for ordering information.

Scott Owens enlarges the community of creativity. He is professor of Poetry at Lenoir Rhyne University, former editor of Wild Goose Poetry Review and Southern Poetry Review, and he owns and operates Taste Full Beans Coffeehouse and Gallery where he coordinates innumerable readings and open mics, including POETRY HICKORY.

Clayton Joe Young is the Director and Senior Professor for the Photographic Technology Program at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, NC. He has won numerous awards for his photography and has published several books, including other collaborations with Scott Owens and with poet Tim Peeler, featuring rural North Carolina, especially Catawba County.

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How can you be on this earth

and not close your eyes on occasion

and listen to leaves give voice to wind,

hear the laugh of crow,

annunciation of blue jay,

moan of mourning dove,

all the meaningful noise

of another spring day?

Behind the finishing plant

just off the run-down road

between failing furniture towns,

a field is bursting with purple flowers.

If you close your eyes

you can hear the cosmos opening.

from An Augury of Birds, forthcoming from Redhawk Publications; poems by Scott Owens, photography by Clayton Joe Young

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