Field of Dreams - I know, I know, a bit twee but I’m in a nostalgic mood - fields of golden corn; a profusion of poppies and the soporific cooing of wood pigeon from the nearby copse all day long - the stuff of daydreams ...
hazy sunshine
a wood pigeon’s song
warms the day
Perhaps this should have been my Haiku Calendar for August, as you’re just as likely to hear a Woodpigeon as a Whitethroat.
Lev Parikian, writer and conductor, describes their song as a cooing sound, with a lilting syncopated rhythm, although he also goes on to say “[...] there’s a throatiness, a sort of ’40-Marlborough-A-Day-For-Thirty-Years’ quality to it [...]”. More usually described as “coo coooo coo cu cu”.
Artist Credit
Another from my collection of limited edition prints by Mary Dipnall, who says “[...] she would rather be sitting in a meadow full of wild flowers, sketching with the sun on her back than anywhere else. [...]”
A beautiful picture that goes so well with your words. And the sound of the wood pigeon is so familiar to me, as in a previous home there was a small copse at the bottom of our garden and we often heard them there.
Thanks Clive. Nothing outwardly special about a wood pigeon’s song but like a favourite song or piece of music it can be an anchor for memories. Perhaps for many of us it is because the song is so familiar. Mind you I don’t get the same kind of buzz when hearing House Sparrow chirping, or Starling whistling though these are memory markers for me that take me back to very early childhood to the house where I was born!
What a lovely sunshine soaker, clive – poppy wheat field and pigeon and lying in that, looking at the sky
Oh yes Jane there’s nothing quite like it …
Well said
Thank you!
Hi, Clive. Great painting, verse and sound! Wood Pigeon are so common now and their ‘song’ is something everyone should recognise!
Thanks Ashley – it’s quite distinctive once you know it isn’t it, but the other pigeons and doves can all sound somewhat similar to the untrained ear. The differences are mostly down to syllable count and emphasis. I still have to consciously listen to be sure!
Ever since the mid ‘60s I’ve had this idea for writing not just words but combining rich media and mechanisms for reader feedback and real time conversation. It wasn’t possible back then – it’s still not quite there – yet! But close …
Ah! The wonders of technology! Look what the pandemic has done….Zoom, Duo….! Everyone seems to be using it. I’ve just joined a book club, via Zoom. I could not have imagined this even a few years ago.
Beautiful and the picture has some very striking poppies. Yes, a lovely haiku for summer as it evokes our senses to see and hear.
I’m not a great one for haiku techniques (Jane Reichhold) but this one outwardly simple, combines a few … switching senses between the imagery of the hazy sun, the sound of the wood pigeon’s song, and the feel of the sun’s warmth burning through the haze; use of simile (or a metaphor depending on how you read it) in the likening of the wood pigeon’s song to a warm summers day; and rounding the whole thing off – the top and bottom lines can be read as a whole – giving it a poetic flow. I think it works!
I think so. I should try it for one of my poetry challenges.
Beautiful haiku. Just submitted a Wood Pigeon haiku as well:) Dreamy painting
I’ve always loved the call of the wood pigeon. The sound of solitary times in woods in childhood.
Me too Josie. I was reminded of my childhood days while on a caravanning holiday recently. Every morning and evening a Wood Pigeon, or two, would ‘coo’ in the trees above the caravan. We were camped in a quiet wooded corner of the site with Oak, Alder, Lime , Hawthorn and Willow – oh and Hazel – clustered in a little spinney that got both morning and evening sun. Other than the spectacular thunderstorms overnight, we were lucky in that the days were mainly sunny!
Wood pigeons! I’m sure they are considered a pest on the arable farms around here but I love to hear them. There’s a melancholy element to their call which suits my mood these days!
Then again, there’s the Collared Dove! Can we write a verse for them?
Maybe on a chocolate box it would be twee, but I don’t think there’s anything twee about the beauty of poppies in a corn field with the sounds of birds!
Sorry for the tardy reply – only just seen this. I must check my bin more often!
Oh I agree there’s something very special about poppies and cornfields. I think it was the title I was a bit uncertain about. We’ve lost many of the cornfield birds – Corncrake, Corn Bunting, Quail, Turtle Dove – although some are making a recovery where rescue schemes are in place. I feel lucky to have seen and heard many of these birds while growing up in the West Country. And I love the painting – we have it hanging in the kitchen along with some of her other similar prints of buttercups and daisies.