Another Chance by Louise Hastings

                                                                                                                              Photo by Deviant Art

Another Chance

by Louise Hastings


Strong morning sunlight
and a single spider’s thread
stands between me
and there, a world of dew-drops,
silent winter frost. I look up
to see a chaffinch land
in a flash of white wing feathers,
slate blue capped and rosy breasted
flitting along the hazel bush
and ice-coated grass. The sky
slightly deepens into corals, blues
and I tiptoe back inside the house
to write these words, to rest
inside this stillness, delay the day
that’s waiting for another chance.


  from her Wings over Water blog  louisehastings.net/tag/chaffinch/

Copyright Louise Hastings 2012   

Chaffinch photo by wlbirding bloodspot                                          

I found this expressive poem by a young author, Louise Hastings.   I am posting it in celebration of the chaffinches we have spotted in our plum tree.   Monsieur has lovingly strung suet balls in the tree, risking life and certainly limb while hanging off the balustrade to do so.

 The Chaffinch is such a common bird in Britain but not down here in Nice.  We thought at first he was our friendly "rouge gorge" (red throat), the European "robin".... but you see the coloration of the wings, the crest and just look at that fat beak.  (above photo).  Not the same guy.

               Rouge Gorge dans la Neige       photo by forum.hardware.fr

 So good to see the Chaffinch.  And so good to hear the young poets.  Brava, Louise Hastings for your inspiration and the beautiful photo that you found to illustrate your work.