Tuesday, March 18, 2014

"The Owl is the Doorway into the Unknown"

West Coast backyard owl


The title quote is from The Golden Cauldron
by Nicki Scully
September 13, 1999

I sit beside my mother's bed
as she lies dying.
Our eyes meet: all the words we cannot say,
all the missed connections,
misperceptions,
in this lifetime,
it has always been
this way.

I release the ways
we never got it right;
forgive, no need to hold the anger tight.
Just "I love you"
and her spirit
flies away,
out of the room
into the starry night.

Weeks later,
I am driving
towards her home
when, in slow motion,
across my windshield
flies
a gray owl,
feathered being,
infinitely wise,
as she passes looking
deep into
my eyes.

Time is suspended
on this point
of traveling.
Somehow I feel
a message has been
received
and, somewhere in my spirit sore,
unraveling,
I know all is understood
and I believe.

Owl, swooping sideways
into the forest green,
bird between two worlds,
all that we know and the unseen,
harbinger of change,
of mysteries beautiful and strange,
as our eyes meet
I know an Oracle
has been.

Wise watcher in the night,
friend of the moon,
fly after she
who left my world
too soon.

Fly, messenger
of my belated transformation;
and give my love to my mother
in the Spirit Nation.

I am posting this poem, which I wrote in 1999, for Alan's prompt at Poetry Jam:
Owls. I doubted I could write an owl poem better than this one, and Mary gave me dispensation to post it, just this once!! Thanks, Mary. Do check out the other links at Poetry Jam, kids....there will be some owl-fully good reading, I am sure.

28 comments:

  1. You are an inspiration. I hope to get back to my writing. It has been a rough winter with quite a bit of hurtful people.

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  2. Wow, Sherry...what a moving poem this is. Sometimes there are messages thst come from the great unknown, I have no doubt. This poem gives me chills.

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  3. nice...owls are so cool...i see them so infrequently around here....i like the letting go...it is not easy...but we have to realize too we get it so wrong so often...and its often one step closer to getting it right....those final moments too...can be so heavy and yet so powerful....

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  4. Owls always intrigue me! I remember this poem-it touches me again~ Yes, our memories haunt, but love enables us to fly~

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  5. I am glad you posted this beautiful owl poem no matter when you wrote it. I did not read it before and it was so rich and lovely. Lots of things to feel in this for me.

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  6. I feel a message has been received - yes, your experience and words have reached me. good one Sherry.

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  7. Love. So rarely addressed, the transformation too late and how to proceed. This is hopeful, beautiful.

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  8. Wise watcher in the night,
    friend of the moon,
    fly after she
    who left my world
    too soon.

    Love this connection between creation and life, that things are greater and more wonderful that we see and feel. Magical words and heart felt.

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  9. Owls have an other world dimension. I believe this was your mother's spirit communicating with you because I have had similar experiences.

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  10. I like the quote you used as a title, Sherry! The owl seems to have a mystic quality and obviously you experienced this.

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  11. ' and I believe.'...there's so much strength in the pronunciation...and I second Liz Rice-Sosne's words..

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  12. This one grabbed me Sherry. My mother and father would always see owls when he was alive and after he passed away mum found comfort in seeing them as though messages from him.

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  13. Beautiful. I'm sorry for your loss (I know it continues to be a profound one) but glad for this sign, glad you received it into your spirit.

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  14. Oh, Sherry... this brought tears to my eyes.

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  15. Somehow being nocturnal makes it a mysterious bird! You have brought it out in the open. Wonderful write Sherry!

    Hank

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  16. so nice...I watch over my Mom now and we are deeply connected, What I gift this is discised as a daily challenge. Who knew but the Owl in the back woods.

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  17. I love this, and love your Mother, and the owl!

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  18. Beautiful, Sherry. I had a similar metaphysical connection, late one evening many years ago, when I stopped atop the arched stone bridge that spans Good Acre Lake in Beacon Hill Park in Victoria. Two mute swans glided towards me (this was at a time when there still were swans in that park) and it was, as you wrote: "mysteries beautiful and strange, as our eyes meet." Thank you for taking me back to that transcendent experience with your wonderful writing.

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  19. Lovely Sherry. I am so glad for you...it is just as it should be.

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  20. Sometimes all that's unsaid is understood more clearly. Beautiful write. I loved it. :)

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  21. Luv the theme of wisdom owl, and what an encounter, surely a blessed moment, thanks for sharing

    Much love...

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  22. Sherry, this was beautiful. It makes me want to put my mother's passing and a similar encounter, though with a seagull, into poetry form. It seemed important to write it down, didn't it? Thanks for sharing this.

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  23. Sherry, profound, full of emotion, wisdom, love. I love that you posted this poem for us .... a gift.

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  24. Sherry you have such a gift for writing spiritual poetry. You pulled me in and I flew with you, gathering goosebumps all the way. Beautiful, heartfull write :-)

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  25. Great response to this prompt. A beautiful poem.

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