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The Osprey

8/30/2013

28 Comments

 
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We currently live on the Intracoastal Waterway in Treasure Island, FL. We have been in our this house for nine years and every year around this time, we are joined by an osprey (also called a fish hawk) who sits on the cross of the church, across our little finger of the Intracoastal, with his eyes on the water below. I’ve tried taking pictures of him (I always imagine it to be a him), but since I don’t yet own a camera with a telephoto lens, it's hard to see the osprey in the picture. Nevertheless, here he is, looking like a finial atop the church cross.

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We have named this osprey Ozzy (very original, I know) assuming it was the same osprey coming back year after year. But last year we had a surprise because the osprey had a different call or keen. It still keened but it was slightly higher and the end part was different too. OMG, we thought, it has been a different osprey every year! And this year has proven our theory to be true: this year's osprey is gigantic, so much so, that at first, we thought it was an eagle. You can clearly see a great patch of white on its neck and head. In former ospreys, this white patch was hardly noticeable from this distance. Breaking with tradition, we call this year’s osprey, Big Boy instead of Ozzy, because a big boy he certainly is. His keen is different too. It sounds like he struggles to keen, we have joked, because he is obese and so it is an effort to make his trademark sound.

I have read a lot about ospreys and one fact is quite startling.  Sometimes, when the osprey dives for a fish, it miscalculates the size and, if the fish is too large, the fish will pull the osprey under and carry it along. The osprey, of course, drowns. Sometimes fishermen will later catch the fish with the osprey talons still embedded.

I find this to be quite amazing and it makes me marvel on the often perilous nature of living.

In any case, here is a poem I wrote about the osprey, a somewhat dark poem since we had just moved to this townhouse community and nature seemed less than wild, trimmed as it was, to the very core of its existence. Being on the water is nice, but even our inlet is man-made. We like our nature a little wilder and we often drive to wilderness areas to get our fix of wild nature. But the ospreys hunting near our home have totally saved us year after year. In any case, the juxtaposition of wild nature (osprey) vs. humans editing wild nature in our complex, is what prompted this poem.

The Osprey

We tamed the world, I know.
It needed to be done, because…
well, there must have been a reason.
It frightened us, perhaps.

December comes in with mild air,
soft breezes over a captured inlet
of still water.
Somebody rolled the sun in gauze,
its fire muted; a clever bit
of engineering.
Sit quietly, listen:
machines hum behind the scenes
keeping it all in place.

Twilight descends across the inlet.
A lamppost’s gentle glow
unfurls over shadowed depths.
An osprey perched on the post
beats its wings powerfully,
then plunges toward the water’s surface--

there are no screams
while the world shatters in unstrung fragments.

(c) B.J. Lee All Rights Reserved
First published in Long Story Short, December 2010

Here's a link that tells a little bit more about the osprey.

Tara at A Teaching Life has the roundup today!
28 Comments
jama link
8/30/2013 02:48:59 am

Definitely identified with your poem. We live on a small patch of woods and really enjoy all the wildlife we see, but feel guilty that we had to destroy part of their habitat to build our house.

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B.J. Lee
8/30/2013 03:15:34 am

Yeah, it's tough! We are moving to a wilder area - this time on a bayou, although not directly, but we are one house away from a conservation area. The first day I looked at the house, I saw an osprey.

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Liana Mahoney link
8/30/2013 03:39:39 am

Wow...ditto what jama said. We love our wildlife here, too, but it is difficult to enjoy it without intruding upon it. Your osprey poem is just beautiful, B.J.

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B.J. Lee
8/30/2013 03:44:01 am

Yeah, it's kind of heart-breaking living in Florida. So many built-up areas. But yet, there are places where the wilderness can be accessed. My husband would be happy living in a little hut in the woods - he's upgraded his wish from a tent as he's gotten older!:)
Thanks for your compliment.

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LInda Baie link
8/30/2013 05:33:15 am

Through our life's circumstances, I just sold our little cabin in the Rockies this year. I loved it dearly, but it was time for another young family to take it & love it. We just stayed well at the end of Captiva Island, not so rustic, but we did have the ocean! I understand what you're talking about, & hope you love your new place! Ospreys are amazing; I've watched them on many trips to the ocean-they seem very much loners! I love your line "rolled the sun in gauze". It happened to us today, a blessing because it was a little less hot. Thanks B.J.!

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B.J. Lee
8/30/2013 06:08:39 am

Linda - Thanks for your comments! I've never been to Captiva Island but I'm sure it is similarly built up like where we are. I was just reading that Captiva Island got it's name because prates used to keep their captives there! Shiversome! I agree, ospreys are loners. They sit and watch the water all day. I'm glad your sun was rolled in gauze today to give you a little less heat! Thanks for stopping by! ~ BJ

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Renee LaTulippe link
8/30/2013 05:50:08 am

BJ, that first stanza is just perfect, and the whole poem lovely in a sad sort of way. We are always in the woods or by the sea over here, but our enjoyment is always marred by the dying pine woods or a swath of garbage in the sea or the factory that mars an otherwise perfect stretch of white sand beaches.

My husband shared this info on Ecological Debt Day with me yesterday. It's frightening. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_Debt_Day

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B.J. Lee
8/30/2013 06:15:57 am

Thanks Renee! Yes, I long to be in untouched wilderness - maybe Alaska - for awhile, although untouched wilderness may be getting scarcer and scarcer. I hadn't heard of Ecological Debt Day before. That is truly frightening!

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Iza Trapani link
8/30/2013 08:23:51 am

Wow, B.J., this is a beautiful poem! "Somebody rolled the sun in gauze"- love that line. My husband and I enjoy watching the ospreys when we got to Maine each summer. Out there, on the islands, they still have quite a bit of wild nature, which is a good thing. That's an amazing fact about fish dragging them under! It's such a precarious world... Thanks for this lovely post.

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B.J. Lee
8/30/2013 08:50:44 am

Thanks so much, Iza! and thanks for stopping by. I've enjoyed the ospreys in Maine as well! It's been quite a long time since I've been to Bar Harbor but it used to be a yearly trek from MA. Yes, isn't that amazing about the fish dragging them under! It is a precarious world.

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Carrie F link
8/30/2013 11:02:48 am

BJ, your poem is filled with wonderful images. I so agree with what you said above about people "editing" nature - that's a great way to put it. Most people have no idea what a truly wild place is really like. It's sad.

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B.J. Lee
8/30/2013 03:14:14 pm

Thank you, Carrie and yes, I agree, a lot of people don't know what a truly wild place is really like.

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Diane Mayr
8/30/2013 11:59:47 am

B.J. the last time I was in FL, I too, wished I had a telephoto lens. The birds I saw were amazing. Including the buzzards sitting on a front lawn! I like your poem very much.

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B.J. Lee
8/30/2013 03:15:45 pm

Thank you, Diane! I've seen buzzards around as well! The next item on our shopping list, when we can afford it, is a camera with a telephoto lens!

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Deborah Holt Williams
8/30/2013 04:22:14 pm

B.J., this is a part of the country I know nothing about, and I loved picturing it. Such good advice to sit quietly, and listen.

B.J. Lee
8/30/2013 05:50:46 pm

Where do you live, Deborah? Florida was so new to my husband and I when we moved here in 2000. It really took a lot of getting used to, but 13 years later, it is home. We are originally from Boston.

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julie rowan-zoch link
8/30/2013 11:37:25 pm

Lovely poem, evocative! I've never been to your part of the country and am thankful for people who post their personal impressions.

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B.J. Lee
8/31/2013 01:39:21 am

Thank you Julie! and thanks for stopping by. The nature here is fierce!

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Mary Lee Hahn link
8/31/2013 10:35:56 am

Lucky you, to have your "own" osprey!

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B.J. Lee
8/31/2013 11:07:47 am

Mary Lee - Ha! Yup! our own pet osprey!

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Becky Shillington link
9/2/2013 07:11:20 am

Lovely poem, B.J.! We used to live in St. Pete, FL and I drove over the Intracoastal Waterway every day. It was definitely a delicate balance of nature and "progress", and my husband and I visited the wilder areas of our part of FL regularly. I totally get what you are saying, here!

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B.J. Lee
9/2/2013 10:32:56 am

Thank you, Becky! and Wow! The same neck of the woods. We used to live in St. Pete, currently live in Treasure Island and are soon moving to Pinellas Park near the Cross Bayou.

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Tabatha
9/2/2013 08:42:00 am

Enjoyed your post, B.J.! We just got back from a weekend at my parents' place, where they have a great many monarch butterfly caterpillars cozying up to their milkweed. It is wonderful when we can make spaces for wild creatures to do their thing near us.

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B.J. Lee
9/2/2013 10:34:19 am

Thanks for stopping by, Tabatha! I would have loved to see the monarch caterpillars in the milkweed! Any type of wildness or nature helps us so much!

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Penny Klostermann link
9/2/2013 10:52:53 am

B.J.
I love this. My favorite line is
Somebody rolled the sun in gauze.
Perfection!

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B.J. Lee
9/3/2013 12:24:03 am

Thanks so much, Penny! and thanks for stopping by!

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Michelle Heidenrich Barnes link
9/5/2013 10:14:34 am

BJ, how did I miss reading and commenting on your poem last week??? I'm blaming it on Labor Day weekend. Anyhoo... this piece is wonderful and thought-provoking. And those last two lines? Breathtaking. Catch up with you again tomorrow!

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B.J. Lee
9/6/2013 04:22:28 am

Hi Michelle! Thanks for stopping by and thanks for your kind words!

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    B. J. Lee is a children’s author and poet. Her picture book, There Was an Old Gator Who Swallowed a Moth, is launching with Pelican Publishing on February 15, 2019. She has poems in 25 poetry anthologies published by  Little, Brown, Wordsong, BloomsburyUK, National Geographic, Otter-Barry Books, Pomelo Books, and Chicken Soup for the Soul. She has worked with anthologists Lee Bennett Hopkins, J. Patrick Lewis and Kenn Nesbitt. She has written poems for such children’s magazines as Spider, Highlights and The School Magazine. Follow her on Twitter @bjlee_writer.

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