No, old people do not walk
slowly
because they have plenty of
time.
The Way Things Are – Roger McGough.
I’ve been thinking of this poem more and more as time goes on. There’s something very simple about it, yet it sticks like a burr in the brain and the meaning deepens as time goes on. I once appeared in a poetry magazine on a page facing a poem by Roger McGough. It remains a high point in my poetry career.
Talking of which, the result is in for the third and final submission I made last month. two tanka prose accepted. I normally only manage one from three, so am happier than usual. Even better, neither of them needs any alteration.
Red Kite
This means I have five haibun/tanka prose to select from for my submission this month.I only have one planned, but I need to get writing for next month, which is a bigger month.
On a completely different subject, we had a Peregrine Falcon over the garden this afternoon. We could hear it, because it’s one of those calls you never forget once you have heard it, but it took a lot of watching before we finally saw it.
Over the years we’ve had a Kestrel on the chimney pot, a couple of Sparrowhawks, Buzzards (admittedly about 200 yards away rather than in the garden) and now the Peregrine. They nest in the centre of town, using the Nottingham Trent University Building as a cliff substitute. I did get some photos once when they flew above rugby training one night, obviously waiting to pounce on a small child. Unfortunately I can’t find them so will probably use photos of kites, a bird I’ve never seen from my garden. Still, it’s nice to know that you can sometimes see birds of prey from a suburban garden, even if it has taken me 35 years to see a Peregrine.
Red Kites at feeding time
You score an enormous number of points for a peregrine. Do you have something that it likes to eat in your garden?
We get quite a few pigeons but haven’t seen it hunting. There must be something it wants for it to come back on two days and to st9ck around for a while. We have seen them over the rugby ground and also flying over a retail park on their way to the rugby ground but they are always quite low and not hunting. They make the same call they do when they are over here. Perhaps they newly fledged young are exploring.
Great news about the peregrine and poetry!
Thank you. To add to my happiness, I was struck by inspiration today. 🙂
Good news on acceptance and predators. Magpies seem to have wiped out our small birds this year
I remember when we didn’t have magpies down here. I was pleased to see the first few, then I realised that the thrushes and sparrows had all gone. 🙁
Congratulations on your first peregrine in your yard!
It came back this morning. There must be something it likes. 🙂
You remind me to go out to see how my peregrine is going. a few years ago I went out every second day and took a photograph from the first egg to the first flights of the fledglings.
It’s a good plan. I remember a peregrine and a quarry, but I didn’t realise you’d taken so many shots.