This week took on a life of its own, so today I’m sneaking in just under the wire, with a small poem.
marsh erupts
flings red-winged blackbirds skyward
summer shifts toward fall
©Molly Hogan
The Poetry Friday Roundup this week is with Rebecca at Sloth Reads.
Nix the comfort zone 
So glad that you were able to sneak this in today. Love the imagery. Here in Florida, I start getting grumbly when the rest of the country starts to feel that shift towards fall. We won’t get anything but hurricanes and temps in the 90s until November!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We’ve had an odd July, weather-wise, and it feels like fall is poking its fingers into summer a bit early! It’s unsettling.
LikeLike
Molly, a beautiful photo and haiku. I love the moment you captured in both photo and poem. I can just imagine the sounds of the red-winged blackbirds all flying together. I love their unique calls and miss them because I grew up across from a cow pond and fields. Do they migrate south from Maine? I love how your first line “marsh erupts” hooked me and how perfect those words describe your photo. Love all your /s/ sounds.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Gail. I have always assumed the red-winged blackbirds migrate, because I consider them a harbinger of spring. You got me curious though, and I checked out a range map. It seems like they might linger year-round along the coast, but in most of Maine they are migratory. I’ll have to keep my eyes open this winter! I’m so glad you asked!
LikeLike
Oh, my that was fast, Molly! Already shifting toward fall? Waaah! I can’t believe all those red-winged blackbirds. I love them, but I’ve only seen them a few at a time and I remember them mostly from the first time I met them, sitting one on each of the wooden fence posts along the ditch on Michigan highways.
I love your word choice–“marsh erupts / flings…skyward” So beautiful!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love seeing the single blackbirds sitting on cattails here and can envision them on wooden fence posts. It does seem odd to see them massing already. I saw swallows grouped a couple of weeks ago and that seemed very early to me. Our temps have been quite cool in the mornings, too. This morning was only 51˚F and earlier this week it was 48˚!! Weird.
LikeLike
Handsome haiku Molly. I’ve seen this shift toward fall too, most of my milkweed plants have flowered and are producing their seed pods…Although, I’m still not quite ready for fall… Thanks!
LikeLiked by 1 person
It seems early, doesn’t it!? I also have been seeing some red maple leaves here and there. Eep!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, Molly, your poem is a transitional one with so much action: erupt, flings, shifts. I was not so lucky with timing. My draft took longer than I thought but I submitted past 12.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good for you, Carol! I had an entirely different plan, but chucked it out the window in favor of something short and sweet that meant I could get to bed! lol I’m off to see what you contributed and am already looking forward to enjoying it!
LikeLiked by 1 person
The photography! We are indeed shirting towards fall when we all might like a little, just a little, more certainty in an uncertain world.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You nailed it! It does feel especially unsettling to see signs of fall so early when everything else feels uncertain as well.
LikeLike
Love the match up of image to poem. You really need to publish a chapbook of your photos and poems, just saying. I wish summer would turn to fall soon, but it will likely be a few months more of heat for us.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for the nudge, Margaret! 🙂
LikeLike
Love it, Molly!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Tabatha!
LikeLike
Bite your tongue, Molly Hogan–summer is definitely not yet shifting toward fall!!! But I appreciate both the photo and the small poem full of a cloud of red-winged blackbirds–I saw two or three lone ones during our cycling trip and I wouldn’t have know that they hang out in gangs. Would a group of rwbs be called a platoon or an army because of their epaulets? This is a very fine haiku or Valerie Worth-style small poem. Good you squeezed it in between the batches of scones.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Apparently, a group of red-winged blackbirds may be called a cloud, a cluster or a merl, but I prefer your platoon designation. I’d never seen this many together before. I actually had turned away to leave and heard them take flight. Very cool!
LikeLike
This is a poem of hope for me — I’m READY for fall! I adore your photo, and the rhyme with “flings” is so perfect. Lovely all the way around.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Mary Lee. This will definitely be a new kind of fall for you!
LikeLike
Oh, I love this…red winged blackbirds skyward. A wonderful, wonderful image and word image pairing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Linda!
LikeLike
This is wonderful. I love the energy in the words: “erupts” and “flings.” It captures the energy of the birds taking off in flight.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks! It was a very dynamic scene! I’m glad some of that energy came through.
LikeLike
I love the Red-winged Blackbirds being flung up – that’s exactly how it seems! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
LikeLiked by 1 person
I actually heard the wings before I saw the birds–the sound made me spin around. It was so cool!
LikeLike