~The Dragon Flies' Lair~Thread XIX~

March 24, 2005 | ~bentfeather ~ Poets of The Lair~

[Soaring Feather]

My Dragon Fly and Me

If I could be a Dragon Fly
and wing my way through the sky
I would never be shy
just me and my Dragon Fly!

By moonlight we ride the wind
chase the comets tail for fun
by day we would hide from the sun
our fragile wings would come undone

On darkest nights we would use
fireflies as our guide
we would dip and we would glide
through the heavens open wide
and scatter diamonds in the night sky
my Dragon Fly and me...

And we would wing past our lovers
silent in the night...
to kiss their face in our flight
much to their surprise and delight
my Dragon Fly and me in sight...

Such a view do we share
away up here in the air
of breezes soft through our hair
my Dragon Fly and me a pair...

bentfeather©

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning, Sam!


To Flush, My Dog
Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Interesting. I l know Elizabeth was sick most of her life. Her dog must have brought great comfort to her.

Thanks for all.


Graphic servers have been doing weird things lately.

[stand watie]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Texas Songwriter]

Hello Ms. Bentfeather. I hesitated to write this because of a few words. But I read a thread on FP and it infuriated me so I wrote it and posted it. I hope you will not take offense.

Convicted

I did not want to write these prose.
What I wanted was some rest.
I wanted peace and quiet and joy,
But now I'm really pissed.
Now in my songs I don't use these words
That limit what I say
But, what can be said of senseless loss
Of values lost today.
In the news I read a piece
Of a fathers'just concerns,
His first grade son forcefed a life
And style that by his measure, lurid.
And what was said and done for cause?
His object of protest.
A six-year olds' designed defiled,
And he, under arrest.
"We hold these truths self evident",
That wrong is never right.
That in pursuit of liberty,
Conviction is not vice.
Convicted to a moral code,
Convicted for good reason.
Convicted by the truth demurred.
Convicted in full season.
Orwell, when I was young and green,
His notions odd and strange.
A product of a furtive mind.
As all of this decayed.
Hell, it seems he wrote the headlines.
And every other page.
Wordspeak blossomed to full fruit,
And he never got full praise.
And he who rings the warning bell,
And well-worn caution calls,
Reviled contempt poured out upon
Tintinabulated halls
Of minds confussed, bereft concerns,
As if cued distant design.
STOP! And look around you.
Is it America that's died?
This grandiose experiment,
Freedom constrained by faith.
The right side of this equation
Deliquesed and out of phase.
Is reason more than merriment?
Is this fragile plan betrayed,
By those who recon righteousness
As history's long gone days.

Jeffrey D.Russell
copyright April 28,2005

[Texas Songwriter]

By the way, I wanted to ask you, "Where did Bentfeather, the name, come from?" I have wanted to ask you for a while.

[Soaring Feather]

Hello Texas Songwriter,

No, you have not offended me at all. You have expressed your feelings and thoughts in a fine and decent manner.

Many people feel the same frustrations as you. Many have no avenue to release them.

I think your piece fine.

---

My name bentfeather. Well, let me see. I lurked at FR for a long time before I joined. When I registered, of course I needed a screen name.
I have always had a fascination for feathers. But the name came from a Turquoise ring I wear. It has a large bent silver feather wrapped around the equally large turquoise stone.
Mystery solved??

[Texas Songwriter]

I never got to discuss your grandchildren. So your grandson is a hockey player? I know nothing about the sport. Nothing freezes over in the south here in East Texas. What little I know of it is that it is a rough and tumble. Hope he takes care to protect his teeth.

We have had a busy week. My brother and sister are coming in this weekend and I am going to bar-b-que. Lets see....we have on the menu St.Louis ribs, brisket,country pork ribs, tenderloin, and sausage. I am, I hesitate to say, a very good cook in the area of specialization of BBQ. But I am not as good as my Dad was. He was the best. You cannot rush BBQ. Time, smoke (Pecan wood),and liberal basting with my special concoction. If I were your doctor, I would let you have 1 rib. One perfect rib that had commanded 3 1/2 hours of my attention. My brother likes to sample along the way. He says he is my tester. As the moment of truth arrives and the pork is ready, everyone (my kids) are making deals with me. It gives me a feeling of power. At all other times I am like the prophet in his own home that gets no honor. Then, as we approach the table, everyone gets quiet and , especially Jon, my brother, is almost snarling as he collects 6 or 8 or 10 bones on his plate, and that without feeling shame. That will be Friday. It is a great reconstitution of family tradition.

I had a 2 year old heifer have a calf and had a difficult delivery. The buzzards killed the calf, and the heifer was left with a paresis (weakness) of the left leg. I have been bringing water and feed to her. She is still quiet animated and tries to kill me every time I get near her. It started getting warmer today, so I roped her and dragged her into the barn where she is in the shade, and it is easier to get hay and cubes to her. I thinks she has a swollen peroneal nerve and is caused by the calf being too big coming down the birth canal and it caused a nerve to get irritated and swollen. I hope it will subside and she will recover. Most all of the cows have babies at side now.

We do a lot of birdwatching here. We have lots of Eastern Bluebirds. Over the years I have put up about 15 bluebird boxes on our farm and have full occupancy. You know bluebirds are mostly carnivorous and will not take seeds. We have a feeder just beyond the veranda and I am pretty diligent about keeping the bird seed out. A few days ago we had a male Painted Bunting, a male Indigo Bunting, and a Blue Grossbeak (male). We also have many house sparrows. The males are beautiful with a rose colored head and tail. The females are less colorful. We also have our hummingbird feeders out. We usually have 4 to 6 Ruby-throated hummingbirds. Lots of cardinals and bluejays. One thing I enjoy a lot is seeing flock of Egrets cascade over my fields as I mow with a 15 foot mower. I expose crickets, katydids,snakes, mice, skinks, frogs, and various other insects which they feast upon. They have no fear of the tractor. I have seen them eat 4 foot long grass snakes. They even tried to take on a field rat, but he was a rough customer. Got away. Mice do not have a chance, and neither do sizable frogs. These egrets are voracious and take no prisoners. Each year we have a Redtailed Hawk, which we named Little Eagle. She had a huge nest in a tall oak tree out back of our house. She gives that high pitches screach when she is disturbed or flying. Last year I saw 2 males in pitches battle in flight vying for her affections. It was amazing. About 5 years ago we had 2 Bald Eagles on the lake at our farm. We had them only one year, but they were incredibly amazing birds. They do project power and madjesty. They were fully mature (I feel like mates) with white heads. My kids got to see them early one morning when, after I saw them perched in a sycamore tree by the lake, I went to the house and woke them at about 6 am. It was worth it.

We are going to have our first crop of blackberries this year. I planted about 700 Apache (thornless variety, and 1000 Chickasaws. The Chickasaws got almost universally infected with "witches broom" also known as rosette. It is a fungal infection of the blossoms which this variety is know to be suseptilbe to. I'll probably have to remove them and plant a different variety. The Apaches look very healthy. I think we will get several hundred gallons of Blackberries. These are the large dometicated varieties that are nearly as large as a golf ball. I have a close friend who raises blackberries commercially. I always wanted to do it, so I did. Now what am I going to do with hundreds of gallons of blackberries?

I recently wrote a song, called "Back When We Were Kids", and the first line is, "We picked dewberries down that old fence line, long-side that sandy road, Early summertime". That was where Jon and I used to pick berries at my grandfathers home in Huntsville,Texas. It is a nice little piece. I recently wrote "As This Cold Wind Blows These Memories Thru My Mind". I think when we produce the record it will be a favorite. I think you might like it. I would like Alan Jackson to record it, but Alan will not take my calls.

Well, I'll close for now. Stay on top of your clotting studies and try, if possible, to avoid surgery on your knees. I'll keep lurking at the Lair and post from time to time. I've been writing a lot recently. My wife has me on a diet, so, I can't eat, so I write. Hope things are well with you and yours.

Sincerely,

Jeff

[laurenmarlowe]

Evening Texas Songwriter.

I appreciate your written words, and your voice. I hear ya!

[Soaring Feather]

My grandson is a hockey player, yes. He is strong and swift. He also has had a broken jaw, when he played for the Saginaw Spirits. He was also in Texas playing for a team there.
If the team had been successful he would have stayed in Texas.

My such a wonderful ranch you have. I would love to see a real ranch. I guess they are huge. I grew up on a very small farm in the sticks. One cow, some chickens and a hog or two for butching. Life was tough. No dad around.

I hope your weekend with family is the grandest! Getting together with family is so much fun. My daughter, the mother to the hockey player had a birthday last week. Family was around for partying. So much fun. I have four daughters. They all live around the area.

Thanks for sharing your ranch, this must keep you very busy.

[fatima]

Dragon Flies' Lair~Thread XIX~, ,Bump.Fatima

[Soaring Feather]

Hiya, love!!

Thanks for bumping up the Lair.

[Texas Songwriter]

Well if you ever get to Texas, you've got a place to stay here on our place. And, if you do, I'll throw in a BBQ for good measure. Sing a few new tunes on the veranda. (That is the back porch).

I really do recommend central Texas on or about April 1st. The bluebonnets are in full bloom and are nothing to sneeze at. Check out the song on that double album I sent to you called "That Sweet Bluebonnet Day". It was about a trip my wife and dautghters took out to Fredricksburg,Llano,Washington on the Brazos....we just tooled around central Texas for a few days. Went down on the Perdernales River. Beautiful. If you can go to Fredricksburg, try to stay at Settlers Inn. There they have a series of 6 pre-Civil War houses, reconstructed and made beautiful. There are deer on the property and you have one of the houses to yourself. Very nice. But if you come to East TExas, drop in at the ranch in Lufkin. Follow the smell of the smoke from the BBQ pit.

[fatima]

OK This is for creative people of which I am not .I can produce a TV program but can-not see the set and it is nice to see ideas,Thank you for this site bentfeather.

[Soaring Feather]

Wonderful! Thanks for the invitation. I have FReeper friends all over this country. And I am a wandering FReeper, so can't ever tell I may ring your dinner bell! LOL The smoke would draw me in. LOL

I have seen the pictures of Bluebonnets, gorgeous flowers.

Thanks again for a wonderful evening of fun and feather information.

[Soaring Feather]

Good night to all who enter the Lair.
May you find peace, love and joy from your visit.
To the poets who post their poetry and music,
Thank You, for treating this room with respect.

[Soaring Feather]

Hugs fatima. You do a great job at what you do.

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning everyone.

[international american]

Good morning, bentfeather. Happy TGIF!

[Soaring Feather]

Good morning to you IA!!

Sunny day in the Empire State!!

Cool temps, but absolutely lovely.

[stand watie]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[laurenmarlowe]

Good morning Ms. Feather!