A Pipistrelle in Winter.

A small rewrite for the season.

Fly instead, should be feeling.
A wing, a dusk and shattered dreaming,
Repose, create, furred life complete
To demonstrate a fleeting sleep.

 

Suppose instead you stay once waked
Suppose preyed eye prick restless state
Searched only for each precious night
A moth, to dust, seeking light.

 

An ice filled window, a leaded pane
A purple sky, stilled weather vane
A screaming moon, reflect frost battered
Uncooled blood prey, its silence tattered

 

Despite still flies, hard reason crushed
Beats still small heart and soft claw touched
Fierce is hate, concern each beating
Awake this time, cold hold is stealing.

 

A small respite, a single flame

A doom filled cold this season blame.

Contrast the night with darkened spire

Of church, of faith, each piece entire

 

In dark winged fold, webbed belfry hold

Accept embracing bright eyed cold.

This winter roars, the ice stick spike
Rage red the hunt, still that it might

Then ghost of all with leathered wing
The crushed body of, this one small thing.

 

Author's Note

A Pipistrelle is the UK's smallest bat. The one's in my loft are hibernating well. The image is mine and is of the loch behind my house in winter. The words are Scots (not Gaelic Scots is a language in its own right).for Merry Christmas.
This is an old one rewritten slightly.

Reviews

[Jimmy Yetts]

Image and salutation were most welcomed.

The imagined or recollected death of a dwarfish bat was never portrayed so exquisitely,
so gorgeously--and with such far-reaching, significant insights.
Ya dun good, Ken; ya dun good!

[Ken Simm.]

Many, many thanks my friend. I hope you are well.

[Beccy]

So tiny, such ethereal creatures of the night, yet equally as beautiful anything that that lives by day.

Such a lovely poem, celebrating as it does, one of God's most fascinating creations.

Beccy.

[Ken Simm.]

Thank you Beccy. Much appreciated and Happy New Year.

[Ken Simm.]

One of these creatures in the wrong place at the wrong time however.

[Einstein Noodle]

Ken! I don't know how you are able to capture so much ...just out your back door .. truly you are blessed and double blessed :)
What creatures of the night the bats are ... had to look up your smallest version .. fits easily in one's hand .. all bats are so ugly ... and when they get a foothold in loft or other closeted space .. they are there forrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeverrrrrrrrrrrr! They are protected here in the States and can only be removed by a licensed bat remover ... very costly ... we have a lot of caves nearby ... some very large and cavernous ... that are home to thousands of bats ... Norma does not like them at all but I love to watch them doing there thing in the light of dusk ... i especially like the contrast of the bat's nocturnal habits with the moths' attraction to light ... making easy prey for Mr. Bat ... yet not really ... like vampires the light repulsing them ;) I feel a strong sense of meaning in the closing lines .. but it escapes me ... i think of bats in winter's sleep dreaming of the hunt ... perhaps a risk they may take if wakened even a little ... brave the cold ... seek the moth .... i am pondering this one my friend ... peace on Earth sir!
E.

[Ken Simm.]

I have Pippistrelles in my loft and during Summer there are larger Daubenton bats over the loch as they prefer water. Bats are protected here also and the same rule applies. Not that I would ever wish to get rid. I like them and their German name of Flittermouse.
My intention here was to wonder what would happen if a bat did not hibernate. The winter would surely kill it. Hence the last two lines. But I also saw it as a metaphor for several things in the human world. Now armed with this new information perhaps you could wonder what they might be. With the extra proviso that they can be whatever you wish in your own experience.
I'm sorry Norma doesn't like them. I know some who think they will tangle in your hair. Never been known to happen as their sonar keeps them well away.
I'm glad you like this and thank you for all the wonderful words. I hope you had and are having a great holiday season. And peace on earth to you also my brother.

[Einstein Noodle]

well ... for me you certainly got me thinking just that ... if they braved the cold ... counter productive for sure ;{ .... you leave lots of room for individual interpretation .. the rage, the hate and the hunt all powerful emotive courses the human heart can take ... with the abstract i try not to interpret too much but the closing turns my feelings to melancholy as braving the cold and recommended course poor bat is crushed ... i admire his ambition and chutzpah ... but grieve his rebellious foolishness ;) further than that i would not go...its enough to have just enough unsettled mind to hold my attention and pay attention :)))))))))))))))))))))

[Gee]

We often sit out at dusk, wife, daughter, ma in law and watch as the bats perform near impossible aerobatiics through trees and houses.
Beautifully written Mr Simm, more than an artust.
Merry Christmas to ya, hope all is well.
Cheers

[Ken Simm.]

Thank you very much my friend and Seasons Greetings to all the above mentioned.

[Robert Trakofler]

Nollaig chridheil agus bliadhna mhath ur:) what a beautiful sight to have out your window but the one within your head is equally as striking good sir! The beauty of the starkness of winter is so very deceptive yet in its harshness lie a truth rarely found within the other seasons winter shows no mercy in its brutal honesty comes a familiar tone tome... glance my beauty and purity of intent, but never rest... for within my arms you will not wake:)

[Ken Simm.]

Glad that you have seen that and I hope your festive season is as bright and warm as you can make it. A Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you also my brother.

[Lydia Shutter]

Color, dark and light, vivid and subdued. You truly are an artist with paint and with words, Ken. If they hibernate, they are smart if you ask me. When I lived in the Northeast of the US, I would have loved to hibernate for the colder months. Great rhyming in this one. Lydi**

[Ken Simm.]

Thank you so much and Seasons Greetings Lydi.

[Terpsichore]

Try again Ken. First review seems to have disappeared into the ether.

Very atmospheric poem; dark and light in combination. They are such delicate little things, yet have such a voracious appetite for their size. And they seem pretty sensible to me as well, hibernating as they do over winter and well into Spring.

I expect you would enjoy 'The Bat' written by Ruth Pitter. She is not ever so well known, but is now a favourite of mine. Beccy introduced me to her a while back.

T

[Ken Simm.]

You are too kind my friend. Many, many thanks and I will certainly seek out that poem. Here's wishing you and yours a great season and a happy New Year.

[emmajoy]

You write the most delicate of poetry. Ken.Seems you're able in a phrase to paint one of your beautiful canvasses with amazing ease Your mind creates colour and shadow, both vivid and subtle. This poem is no exception.. and is, for me, memorable in that we have pipistrelles down here! Have known one to take a figure of eight jaunt over my rear garden and make for my head then - turn way as if to say, 'Only joking!

What a wonderful poem.. truly wonderful, 'Repose, create, furred life complete - To demonstrate a fleeting sleep.... '

[Ken Simm.]

Ah dear Em. You are simply too kind for those fantastic words. And Nollaig Chridheil my dear lady.

[emmajoy]

Always a pleasure, truly! And assuming what you say is polite.. and am sure it is... the same to you, dear sir. x

[Ken Simm.]

Merry Christmas in Gaelic.

[emmajoy]

I thought it might be. Wish you'd record those Gaelic, words, Ken!

[Ken Simm.]

Why? I can't speak Gaelic.
A bheil Gàidhlig agat?

[emmajoy]

If you say so, Mr. Simm... was just a thought..

back to the kitchen i go!

[andrew mitchell]

Great write Ken on the smallest bat which I might add I didn't know til now. MerryXmas to you and yours Ken.

[Ken Simm.]

Many thanks and yuletide greetings back at you.