Poem ‘Dark’

art, digital art, english, nature, painting, philosophy, poems, poetry, writing 1 Minute

Dark

Rook on the road verge ahead
how casually you’ll step aside,
only just avoid my wheels.
Is that why I smile at the mirror
where you promptly step back
to continue to pick and prod,
pulling at the roadkill entrails
some straitjacket driver provides?
Like the crow, the raven— few
are as bright as you, so dark
in colour and reputation

poem and image © copyright dfbarker 2012

Published by Ciscography

Creator, Writer, Blogger.

Published

52 thoughts on “Poem ‘Dark’”

  2. Gosh are you in my car with me? hehh I’ve had such thoughts while driving around for sure. Particularly on my local awesome country roads where all kinds of wildlife stands in the road. 🙂

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  3. Hi David,
    what a delightful poem you have made of this encounter, and that is a great painting as well. Those birds are so black, they really are blue.

    Rook, we call them so too. (Roek)
    They don’t seem to mind the traffic, as they know it will give them food…
    🙂

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  7. Hi Ina, thank you very much. Yes, rook, raven, crow, magpie… probably all similar in Dutch? Old English was much more like Dutch.

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  9. Hey David, this feels deceptively simple. I have the feeling that there is a great deal more going on here below the surface as many possible ideas/scenarios come to mine after reading. Love the alliteration in this line- “Rook on the road verge ahead” and the solid imagery of the piece.

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  10. Thank you once again, Emma. As ever, you are very perceptive. One of things that I wanted to get across was that we humans are far less free than we think -‘straitjacket’. 🙂

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  15. ugh…yes… most of the time we stay on those well worn roads where the light shines brightest but our eyes glance to the sideways..

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  19. “rook” sounds intelligent. And they are, aren’t they. The “k” sound is a bit of an hmpf, which it gave the driver after all.

    I remember learning Poe used the word “raven” in his famous poem, because the sound of the “r”, “v” and “n” lingered, like “nevermore…” and it fit the tone of the poem well.

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  21. David, great poem! Such intelligent birds as crows (ravens, blackbirds, et al) must be laughing at us “smart” (arrogant) humans wheeling through their territory, inadvertently providing them with meals. Made me smile with you, at the image in your rear view mirror. 🙂

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  34. Lovely poem. A bird like a rook here is the Magpie. During early spring they become very protective of their young and can become aggresive to people and swoop down on them and peck at their heads. Kids paint scowling faces on the back of their bicycle helmets to prevent being attacked…

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  35. Hi David, in reply to your reply: Raven = raaf, crow = kraai, so that sounds a bit similar in Dutch, but magpie = ekster. 🙂

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  37. Hi Ina, English has changed so much over the years the original for ‘magpie’ might well have been something similar to ‘ekster’. The old English for ‘creation’ was ‘frumshaft’ – typical of the process that’s been going on in English for a thousand years: French/Latin/Greek etc words replacing native words.

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  38. The rook is just very self-confident–and you write about him so self-confidently, with celebration of his antics, as well! Thank you, DF!

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  51. This is an excellent depiction–and conclusion–of this scene. Love the sense that the rook may have more freedom than you do. And the title is perfect…and very telling…

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