It is with great joy that I share my poem, “In Memoriam.” The poem took Second Place in the Mnemosyne Award category of the 2018 Georgia Poetry Society fall contests. It appears in this year’s edition of The Reach of Song, a poetry anthology published annually by the society. The title of the anthology comes from a poem by renowned Georgia poet Byron Herbert Reece.
In Memoriam
One by one
they drop from the sky
and find their perches among
thin, lithe boughs
of a leafless white oak tree,
now a sharp silhouette sketched in inky black lines
against an ominous steel-gray sky
Only a few stubborn patches of lichen
dare to cling here or there like crepe
left behind on the empty branches
Dried sunflowers in the garden
hang their heads in grief and disbelief
They know their end has come
The mourners are wearing their funereal finest
Sleek, ebony feathers reflect the slanted rays of
the afternoon sun but find no warmth in this place
Shiny, black eyes survey the sight below them
One of their own, felled by the farmer’s gun,
is strung from a rope on the barbwire fence
A warning, a sign to his kindred
They are not welcome here
They might share his fate
In solemn respect the mourners sit in silence
A brief corvine ceremony of peace and respect
Then all at once the service concludes
as if some unseen chorus master has waved his baton
They lift their wings and fly away together,
each one calling out to one another
in discordant voices only they understand
A benediction for their fallen comrade
Carroll S. Taylor
The judge for the Mnemosyne Award commented:
“In Memoriam comes at the reader with vivid visual imagery. It reads like an artist’s black and white photograph, with sharply drawn contrasts. The word pictures of death and mourning are dramatic. The stark warning of the dead bird brings to mind violence humans commit against each other and serves as its own warning and cautionary tale.”