will you be my dearest friend tonight
enfold me in the wisdom of the ancients
raven raven dark as midnight
please tell me true — which fable’s right
and tell me which here is a false illusion
moon moon both dark and light
wrap us in your beams tonight
and ferry us off to a magic realm above
where we will live a life to last
to celebrate our sweet contrast
an ever meaningful life of honest love
rob kistner © 2021
https://youtu.be/wi3LIc9rw0Q
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We got nothin but crows up here, right now, RK, and even they are keepin deep in the woods avoiding the double-digit-below-zero windchill. I’m drinkin hot coffee and smilin while I read your fine
Pantry Poem. Thanks.
Holy shit Ron! Hope I was able to add a bit or warmth sir… 🙂 DAMN!
Yes please!
Ditto qbit — celebrate our contrasts!
Love birds. Love your words.
Anna :o]
Thank you Anna… 🙂
Beautiful rhyme and message in this sweet poem Rob! I love the direction you went with this image!
Thank you Carrie, and pleased this resonated with you! 🙂
Love your poem, Rob, and enjoyed all the videos too.
Thank you Rosemary… 🙂
What a wonderful video, owl and raven! Beautiful détente. Teaching us a thing or two!
Glad it resonated for you Helen. We have sooooo much we can learn from nature, but we are just fixated on controlling it, and unfortunately, we are killing it with arrogance and stupidity!
Luv your gorgeous poem. Enjoyed all the music videos
Happy Sunday
Much????love
Sunday smiles to you Gillena, and thank you… 🙂
Enjoyable contrast and read like a ballad, perfect for a morning read.
Thank you Chrissa, pleased you enjoyed it! 🙂
Honest love is hard to come by, and we need all the help we can get from owls, ravens, and moons.
Yes it is Teach, and yes we do.
First of all, I was enchanted with the rhyming rhythm of the poem; secondly the owl and crow video is absolutely hypnotizing. and for a minute there I identified with the caged white bird! Always a pleasure to visit here, Rob. Stay safe. Be well!
Thank you Bev… 🙂 …isn’t that video just captivating!
So beautiful. It is a poem I could read to the moon.
Love your kind words Susie… 🙂
to celebrate our sweet contrast
an ever meaningful life of honest love
Many are yearning for the better but present circumstances are limiting resources and opportunities. Hoping for better times in the ensuing year.
Hank
True Hank, but it’s the lack of compassion that is the biggest problem — and that is a matter of attitude, and attitude is completely in our control.
I enjoyed the flow of this poem, it has a dreamy lyrical feel about it. I think nature often sends us messages to help guide us in our journey. We just need to watch and listen. I’ve seen a lot of crows lately and once in a while I can hear the hoo hoo but, the owl remains hidden from sight.
Thank you True! It is my sincere belief that humankind is way out of “balance”, out of “synch” with our natural world, and so much of our struggle, conflict, and destructiveness is a direct result. We need to look, listen, and learn — or we’re gonna lose!
I really like the comparison and contrast in this poem and how each stanza addresses a different bird or the moon.
Ghsnk you RW… 🙂 …I love moon poems — guess I am a bit of a luna-tick?
I love the word contrast here and that the moon can be both light and dark. There is a little light in dark and a little dark in light.
Thank you Colledn… 🙂 …I wanted it to be a YinYang poem, with meaningful eternally relevant social tone of unity.
This is so sweet, soothing, and delightful. Takes me back to my childhood. Those magical evenings when the power would go off and we would gather in the living room by candlelight to sing songs and recite verses. I love this!
Thank you Hazel! I wanted it to have a youthful, story feeling. I am pleased it resonated that way for you. 🙂
totally enjoyed your poem.
i was wondering, is there a name to the structure of the poem?
Thank you dsnake… 🙂 This poem is 4 stanzas of tercets, with rhyme pattern: AAB AAC AAD EED with no fixed meter. Repetition begins stanzas 1,2,3 and the 4th sums the reationship of 1st, 2nd, 3rd.
Not sure there is a formal name for the rhyme pattern, but it is one I have used on occasion. It is pleasing to my ear and my sense of looser, free-verse type rhythm. I think I will decide to call it a Kistner Quatercet.
Our song birds are just coming around now, pecking the pruned branches for nesting materials I suspect. I hear them every morning outside the window–your poem reminds me of how much I love birds.
I love song birds Audrey!
I think the tales told by owls and ravens may be too colored by their own fanciful ideas to be of much use to us wingless types, but I do love the optimism here.
“White Bird” is such a fantastic song, as are all the songs on that album. It is very hard to find. Years ago, I couldn;t find it on cd before finally finding it (on a double cd with Marrying Maiden) in a record store in Toronto as an import. Even now, itunes does not have it, and I’ve seen it without the original cover art as well. I think there is some sort of legal issue which keeps this great music out of reach. Back when I had my old iPod with far less storage–and itunes DID have it–I DL’ed White Bird, Hot Summer Day and Bombay Calling, so I have those, and the double CD, and I have an old scratchy LP as well. But when I went back to get the rest of the album on my new iPod, it was no longer there. Searching “White Bird” only brought up live versions and versions by David Laflamme as a solo.
I lost a shitload of my 60’s vinyl in a tumultuous relationship that ended in divorce in ‘73. I did, over the years, replace a great many of them, including CD versions. However, first releases of Beatles, Stones, Hendrix, Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Byrds, Doors, the Who, Pink Floyd, Yardbirds, Cream, Bluesbreakers, Bowie, Love, Zappa, Procol Harum, CS&N, Joplin, Nyro, etc. etc. etc. — all gone.
ps–one day back in 1977 or 78, I spent a weekend at a friend’s house and discovered White Bird and also Joni Mitchell’s For The Roses. I borrowed both LPs and that was a watershed moment, musically, for me.
Very cool Shay! I love love love “White Bird”! My keyboard player introduced our band to “It’s A Beautiful Day” in ‘68 of ‘69 when he brought it to practice so we could work “White Bird” into our ‘covers’ set. We did half original material and half covers. I loved singing that song. “Comin’ Back To You” by Jefferson Airplane was another cover I loved singing. I mention that one because we worked it into our covers set material the same week. Although I’d been aware of her for s fes years, I fell madly in love with Joni when “Blue” was released out in ‘71. I own every album/CD that Joni has recorded. The nude picture of Joni on the inside of the fold cover for the vinyl of “For The Roses” took my breath away. Her standing on the rocks eith the waves breaking at her feet — WOW!
I really like your use of rhyme in this one, Rob. The chanting tone conjures forests at night and uncertain love. The phrase “false illusion” is cleverly used, I think. It brings to mind the idea that some illusions might be true, and it leaves me looking around in side the poem… wondering what else might not be what it seems.
Thank you Magaly. You picked up on my double negative. Their are many fables and tales about ravens, most considered illusionary. But some must be true, so tell me Raven, which are real. And owlso are considered in many cultures as symbols of wisdom.
A fairytale with an unknown ending. Wondeful, Rob!
Thank you Sara.