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A Wing-stroked Spectacle
Segmented sets of starlings sharply elevate
towards candescent skies, suspend, then circulate
in sync. Their wingspans whisper sunset symphonies
while manifesting silhouetted symmetries.
With poise and spurts of swiftness, they transform the air
into an ever-changing scape; this canvas where
each turn and swirl unfurls a painterly display:
a moving mural, rendered on a dying day.
The starlings coalesce to form a checkered veil.
They crown the clouds and skim across a coastal trail,
then separate as if surrendering to gusts,
and cover summits like a desert’s storm-flung dust.
With tapered pace, erratic bursts revert to long
glissades of shimmering shades; a showy dance along
a latent, stopgap stage. They stir, careen, decline:
retracing what remains of lofty lazuline,
before it all becomes a screen of red-specked gold.
The starlings falter in its wake; they cannot hold
their elegance in fading light. Their spirals wane
in streaming chains that spill in spates of jet-black rain.
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Daniel Moreschi is a poet from Neath, South Wales, UK. After life was turned upside down by his ongoing battle with severe M.E., he rediscovered his passion for poetry that had been dormant since his teenage years. Daniel has been acclaimed by various poetry competitions across the United Kingdom and United States.
This poem has terrific alliteration and high-level vocabulary to match the wonderful rhymes. Added to that is the vivid imagery of the starlings in flock flight. Most enjoyable.
Daniel,
This is so lovely. I am delighted by the resolution of the image in the last line (the jet-black rain).
This is a wonderfully crafted poem, Daniel, and it was a joy to read. It’s teeming with lively imagery.
You’ve described this beautiful event with with so many masterly phrases, that I felt as if I were seeing and hearing the spectacle as I read. You bring out the music of the birds with a great deal of both alliteration and assonance. I love the second verse’s metaphor of a canvas, as if the birds were painting a “moving mural” — as well as your other comparisons: “storm-flung dust”; dancing on a stage; “jet-black rain” ; “sunset symphonies.”
Dear Daniel, reading this poem felt like experiencing a motion picture. How beautifully you’ve described the course of the starlings! I love the alliterations, fluid metre, and also words like “storm-flung” “lofty lazuline”, “silhouetted symmetries”, etc. I’m very happy to see your poetry here again.
As always, I appreciate the use of Alexandrines in English. This is a very striking piece, both for the vivid detail and the richness of the language, with some innovative usage (e.g. “painterly,” “lazuline”). Your careful attention to each detail brings the reader there, and rekindles the scene you found so inspiring. Lovely!
Thank you for this. Your title is a fine one as well.
Daniel, this is a stunningly beautiful poem. The sumptuous and mellifluous language, with some masterly examples of alliteration, paints magnificent images that rise from the page in a swirl of symphonic wonder in “glissades of shimmering shades” (superb sibilance) that sing to me. The promising title delivers… and then some. Very well done indeed!
A starling murmuration is far too difficult a subject for a painter, but Daniel, you have done a splendid job of outlining one in formal verse. It surpasses Ted Hughes with his free verse “Starlings Have Come,” where he apparently tried to make a shape poem of the moving picture. Your dynamic “Wing-stroked Spectacle,” combined with David Hartnett’s formal slant-rhymed “Mimics,” about the sounds starlings make, present a pair of poems that illustrate the distinction of the species beautifully in words.
Roy, M, Drilon, Cynthia, Shamik, Adam, Sally, Susan, and Margaret, thank you so much for your kind and inspiring words.