What Do Birds Say to the Moon?
This poetry chapbook resulted in part from Joan Smutny’s lifelong mentorship of Kathryn Haydon. Contrasting darkness and light, death and life, the poems speak of nature’s laws wherein discord and challenge give way to hope and growth. Haydon weaves words into unexpected images that surprise, delight, and challenge our way of looking at the world.
What people are saying:
I loved the peaceful, imaginative images of somewhat everyday things that too often go unheralded in our busy lives. Lovely! – RG
A most beautiful poetry collection! The poems are so dear, tender, and exacting in idea and metaphor. -LB
Who could not like these poems? Who would not love them? Who would not gain something of the inner communication of the tenor of such poetry? I appreciate what you have done to enable those of us who love poetry to love it even more and to those who do not know poetry to walk into a new world of sunlight and love. -JF
Poem Sampling:
Gray Morning on the Pennsylvania Turnpike
Trees have shed their
party clothes.
Flowing gracious gowns
that sparkled in auburn golden light
lie crumpled
on the forest floor.
No shame, they stand erect —
uncloaked by fog or foliage —
sleek, smooth-skinned bodies
proudly saluting
ephemeral gray sky;
nature’s figure drawing models,
each curving branch
an outline of
uninterrupted creation.
Up close
strong and separate,
they link arms on the horizon,
together
lending softness to the hillside.
“Gray Morning on the Pennsylvania Turnpike” – First published in Written River, Issue 5, Vol. 2, 2014-2015
Reverence
Trees’ blush-white blossoms
perch daintily on sunlight;
five silent psalms sheltering
the steadfast stream below.
Translucence bathes the soul of one
who pauses to perceive.
