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Mourning Doves
Hear the soft coo—a coo that faithful love imparts;
Mourning doves, they share as one, two beating hearts.
On summer’s eaves of pine, they build their lofty nests;
Tender eggs are tucked beneath warm nurturing breasts.
Oval-shaped, snowy white, hatched alive,
Fledglings find their downy wings—learn to survive.
Speckled gray and black, they gracefully take flight.
Unfurled tails fan out, reveal a fringe of white.
Halcyon days of summer, coming to an end;
Heading for the border, they quietly ascend.
.
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Paulette Calasibetta is a retired interior designer. Her poetry has appeared on line and in print in numerous journals and anthologies.
Beautiful poem, Paulette.
Thank you Roy. I have a special affection for Doves; watching them each day is truly a gift of peace.
I love doves! They are just as you portray them, Paulette, gentle, sweet, loving. I have a couple nesting in our cherry tree, each year they build faithfully their nest and attend equally to their fledglings….a great example of how our world should be….
”doves they share as one….two beating hearts”….
Yes, doves are so delightful, so calming and so
reliable. I await them every morning and in the evening too. I love to hear their them sweetly coo – coo.
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So much expressed in the apparent simplicity of your couplets, Paulette. A pleasure to read.
Thank you Paul. I am new to writing in the classical form, enjoying the beauty of meter and rhyme like a lyrical ballet.
here’s a driving-down-the-road Mourning Dove ditty:
Oh for Zenaida macroura
Processing roadsides for seeds,
barfing up a milk-like substance:
everything a nestling needs.
Fred, LOL….an interesting sequel.
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A beautiful beautiful poem, Paulette! The imagery and the tender language of this piece are very delectable! Thanks for sharing.
Shamik, I am new to writing classical poetry; your comments are a boast to my future as a classical poet.
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Paulette, I love the line “Tender eggs are tucked beneath warm nurturing breasts”– it it interesting because when I think of “warm nurturing breasts” I think of a mother nursing her baby– I do very much like the image of a bird’s breast being nurturing in a different way than the breast of a human mother. Thanks for sharing your lovely poem!!
Hi Theresa, thank you for your thoughtful comments. I have a family of doves in my garden; watching them in their habitat, I related to them as a protective mother would…hence “warm nurturing breasts”. Glad you found the beauty in this.
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Understand your affection for doves, Paulette. I’ve been able to watch this variety at most places where I’ve lived, and now there is a pair feeding regularly in our front yard. “Summer’s eaves of pine” is a fine descriptive phrase for nest location. The poem is well done for a fledgling in metrical verse!
Margaret, Thank you for your uplifting comments… being a ‘fledgling’ I intend to continue spreading my ‘classical wings’ .
This is really beautiful, Paulette. I love the way that you capture the fragile promise of the fledgling doves.
Morrison, doves nest at our home every spring; watching them cuddle and coo each morning, fostering their eggs ….so inspirational.
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