Ekphrastic Special

 Sharon Waller Knutson and Husband Al 

 

 

 

By Editor Sharon Waller Knutson 

I am sharing my wildlife poems and my husband Al’s photos and artwork of the creatures we observe on our property in a wildlife habitat in Arizona. All of the poems were written from the photos and are unpublished except for "Skunk on a Bad Hair Day."

 The poem, “Dancing with a Scorpion” was only written recently although my book of the same name was published in 2006 with my husband’s illustration. The book title came from a line in one of the poems in the book.

I love to personify creatures in poems and my husband, Al, loves to photograph them. Our house which he built out of clay with his own hands is wallpapered with photos he took of wildlife and our kids, grandkids and great grand-kids.

 I have been writing poetry, short stories and novels since I was a child. My husband has been photographing the wildlife on our property since we moved to a wildlife habitat in Arizona in 2000.

 When I published my first poetry chapbook, Dancing with a Scorpion, in 2006 my husband illustrated the cover and many of his photos have graced the covers of my other books. His photos have also appeared on Your Daily Poem with some of my creature poems.

The poem, “Dancing with a Scorpion” was only written recently although my book of the same name was published in 2006 with my husband’s illustration. The book title came from a line in one of the poems in the book.


Skunk on a Bad Hair Day

Too busy for a salon
shampoo and haircut,
stray strands of long white
hair fluffing and flying
in all directions
down her back
to the ground, she
turns up her nose
at the orange and banana peels
the crows and chipmunks
are fighting over, chomps
on a corncob and washes
it down with pond water.
Lucky for us, her perfume
bottle sits on the dresser
next to her hairbrush
while she hikes
across the Arizona desert
and stops in our front yard
for a snack and a cold beverage.

From What the Clairvoyant Doesn’t Say   

 

 

 

 

Guess Who is Squatting in the Sunroom?

My husband wakes up
from his afternoon nap
to a bang in the Arizona
room so he looks through
the window expecting
to see the feral orange tabby
he has been feeding
for over a year.

Instead, a gray spotted Bobcat
twice the size of the domestic
cat sprawls across the air
conditioner sniffing scents
and traces the steps
of the cat we call Survivor
as he jumps on a chair,
stands on the top
of the dining room table
and slips through the slit
in the screen door and sun
bathes on the scaffold.
in the courtyard until sundown.

The cat dish is empty
and Survivor is MIA.
There’s the usual suspects:
the bobcat, coyotes, dogs.
Then the unlikely suspects:
a cougar, a bear or maybe
he ran off and is in hiding.
Time will tell the truth.
 

 

 

 

Sugar High

The hummingbird hovers
in front of the window
like Tinker Bell admiring

her reflection in the glass,
but as her wings flutter
so does my husband’s heart.

He stirs up a batch of sugar
water and adds a drop
of red food coloring and fills

the feeder, hanging from the porch.
Before the hummingbird can get a drink,
the flicker pushes her aside,

hops on the plastic rings,
hugging the feeder with his wings,
hangs on like a drunk swinging

from a chandelier filled with  punch.
He siphons out the sweet beverage
until the plastic ring breaks.

He flutters to the ground
and then staggers off
to sober up before flying home. 

 

 

 

 

 

Dancing With a Scorpion

Me in two bare feet, he in six feet,
we two step, tap dance and shuffle
to the beat of my drumming heart
when we meet at midnight,

the glowing night light
guiding us as we glide
across the tile floor. Quick
Quick Slow Slow Shuffle Tap.

We repeat the steps, mindful
of the sting and pain if one
of us steps on the other’s toes,
until he skitters under the sink.
 

 

 Illustration by Al Knutson on cover of Dancing with a Scorpion (Moon Journal Press 2006.)

 For more poems and photos on wildlife on their property.

 

Road Runner

 https://www.yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=3896 

 

Romeo

https://yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=2748  

Tortoise

 https://yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=2596  

Papa Quail Takes the Family for a Walk

https://yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=4484   

 

 

Bathing With a Tarantula (Not)

 https://yourdailypoem.com/listpoem.jsp?poem_id=3466

 

 

 

 

 

usbaHHH