13 June 2025 (moonrise)

moonrise

a woodcock’s silhouette

arcs over the marsh

24 May 2025 (twilight chill)

twilight chill

a distant woodcock

repeats his call

2 April 2024 (whistling)

whistling up the wind a woodcock in flight

May 20: Woodcocks

alone at twilight

with setting Venus

and displaying woodcocks

Version 2:

middle age

alone at twilight

with setting Venus

April 28: Date night

behind the movie theatre

calls of woodcocks

Venus growing brighter

May 20: Sky dance

Under the full moon

we can just make out the woodcock

calling near us.

Posted with Blogsy

May 23: Monhegan twilight

Woodcock's sky dance--
lighthouse beam sweeping over
the two of us, the bird.

Monhegan Island, view from the lighthouse

Monhegan Island Light

March 19: The night before spring begins

No woodcocks twittering

in the frozen alders,

no pussy willow buds.

Posted with Blogsy

March 21: Perfect sunset

Someone told me a very funny story at the end of a reception on this sultry evening, so I left in high spirits, open to joy. I was wearing flip-flops on this second day of spring. Jupiter and Venus hung together, bright above the red glow of sunset. In the field next to where my car was parked, I could hear the twittering of displaying male woodcocks. I stood by the field for several minutes listening. Off to the east I could see red Mars: a planet trifecta. When a bird landed, in the pause between aerial displays he sat in the field for awhile calling "peent, peent" loudly enough to hear over my car engine. Spring magic.

Vernal conjunctions:
three planets, several woodcocks,
and me, observing.