A Quality of Crows

[SweetSilverBird]

A Quality of Crows
by Deborah Neher

My love is ethereal, unknown.
Magical, but true.
Genderless and fathomless;
my one and only you.
Androgynous because
It doesn't matter what's outside.
Love lies between the spirit and the mind.
Oh may your heart be blessed to feel the waters of starlight;
or live among a quality of crows, a lonesome night.

www.birds.cornell.edu/crows/images/roost.jpg [/img]

[Fire Monkey]

I just want to say that I like this poem, though the phrase "Quality of Crows" is one which escapes me.

[SweetSilverBird]

A quality of crows. Just my way of describing sad drifting lonely loveless broken hearted people. They wander from cafe' to coffee shoppe - in their dark raincoats just wishing to be among people because they have no one. They take on a 'quality of crows' at night. Just my own little thoughts.

[Fire Monkey]

Makes sense.

[Brigid Briton]

Hi Deb,

I read this last night and I, too, was puzzled by the phrase "a quality of crows". So much so, that I googled it, and, of course, couldn't find it. I decided to sleep on it and see if it fell into place for me this morning.

I've read your explanation and now I get what you're saying. I think perhaps you could re-work the poem just a tad to make it clear what you intended. I do like the phrase a lot but I think it needs to be clarified a bit by context.

"Love lies between the spirit and the mind" is another phrase I really like. It's one you can take hold of and turn round and round, like a smooth pebble in the palm of your hand. Very deep. Very nice.

Glad to see you posting. You are very much missed around here!

[SweetSilverBird]

Thank you, Monkey, and Brigid, for your comments. Yes, it seems 'a quality of crows' is not coming across quite as 'zen'-like as I had hoped. I see in crows a creature of exile. An unloved creature. Rejected. That was what I was trying to get at with that little unusual collective noun for the crows. Some people do get it, but I wish I could find a way to say it without over saying it. What do you think?

I'm sorry I am not here more. I wish to be. So.Many.Alligators.
(figure that one out Brigid <3 ) I am here as often as I can.

[diannet]

Hi Deb, I do love your phrase a Quality of Crows, they're a precious creature and so fascinating. I've never quite understood why so many loathe them. I wondered whether a couple of simple changes to the last line might bring that feeling you wanted for your poem.

and live among a quality of crows upon this lonesome night... or you could add "and not" instead to emphasise your wish for them not to become a quality of crows.

just two changes that might highlight your meaning a little more... as I read this that the narrator wishes someone they love does not become an exile of love.

This is a rather lovely way to describe those on the fringes of love, and I think you've done it beautifully.

[eiken]

I love the title, the idea of a quality of crows is almost like opening a chocolate box full of birds. Crows for me have always been a dark image of loss, loneliness and now that Spring is here, the sheen of their feathers is metallic so they take on a different meaning. A collection of crows is a murder of crows, I love the image that conjures up too, a blood red sky of crows. They are interesting and intelligent birds, we have them in abundance here, they love the Scots Pine behind my house and make a terrible racket at dusk. Lovely to see your writing again Deb.

[dustandwater]

Hi, SweetSilverBird.

Thought I'd weigh in here, for what it might be worth.

It was the title—the intrigue the phrase engenders—that caused me to read the poem at all. I, like others here, did not know what it meant and upon reading it, didn't have any clearer an idea. However, that didn't trouble me.

Lik Brigid, I did a quick Google (noun, verb, whatever, such a multi-purpose word now. Where would we be without it? Probably in better shape! Aside over.) and, like Brigid, I found nothing.

But then, the use of crows at all was puzzling in what is a rather romantic poem. So then it had me thinking of crows in a different way entirely. It made me think that the collective term, 'a murder of crows', was a little unfair, certainly something they'd never signed up for, and that maybe, if enough people could read this poem and see the romantic side that you have penned for them, we could be less prejudiced, and start calling them 'a quality of crows' instead.

–D&W