“I am still a learner, not a teacher, feeding somewhat omnivorously, browsing both stalk & leaves.” – Henry David Thoreau

Hello All and Happy Memorial Day-

Before we delve into our prompt for the day, please pause and thank all the courageous men and women who have fought (and who are currently fighting in the world) to preserve our fundamental rights. May their mission prevail over hatred and tyranny.   

I was recently reading Owls and Other Fantasies, by Mary Oliver and came across a lovely poem that inspired me to use the word Browse for our prompt today. If you are new to dVerse, a quadrille is a poem in which we take any meaning of one word and include it in a 44 word poem. You may also use any form of the word browse.

Here is the poem that captivated me:

Hawk

This morning

the hawk

rose up

out of the meadow’s browse

and swung over the lake —

it settled

on the small black dome

of a dead pine,

alert as an admiral,

its profile

distinguished with sideburns

the color of smoke,

and I said: remember

this is not something

of the red fire, this is

heaven’s fistful

of death and destruction,

and the hawk hooked

one exquisite foot

onto a last twig

to look deeper

into the yellow reeds

along the edges of the water

and I said: remember

the tree, the cave,

the white lily of resurrection,

and that’s when it simply lifted

its golden feet and floated

into the wind, belly-first,

and then it cruised along the lake —

all the time its eyes fastened

harder than love on some

unimportant rustling in the

yellow reeds — and then it

seemed to crouch high in the air, and then it

turned into a white blade, which fell.

~Mary Oliver

What a beautiful rendering of life, death, and rebirth!
During my research for this prompt, I came across a song by the Foo Fighters that contains browse in the lyrics:

I will leave you with one more poem that is delightful:

This Morning I Could Do

A Thousand Things– By Robert Hedin

I could fix the leaky pipe

Under the sink, or wander over

And bother Jerry who’s lost

In the bog of his crankcase.

I could drive the half-mile down

To the local mall and browse

Through the bright stables

Of mowers, or maybe catch

The power-walkers puffing away

On their last laps. I could clean

The garage, weed the garden,

Or get out the shears and

Prune the rose bushes back.

Yes, a thousand things

This beautiful April morning.

But I’ve decided to just lie

Here in this old hammock,

Rocking like a lazy metronome,

And wait for the day lilies

To open. The sun is barely

Over the trees, and already

The sprinklers are out,

Raining their immaculate

Bands of light over the lawns.

Source: The Courier-Herald

If you are new, here’s how to join in:

• Write a Quadrille poem consisting of 44 words exactly (not including the title) in response to the challenge. The word today is ‘Browse‘ and it must be used in some form within your poem
• Enter a link directly to your poem along with your name by clicking Mr Linky below and remember to check the little box to accept the use/privacy policy.
• You will find links to other poets and more will join, so check back later to read their poems.
• Read and comment on other poets’ work–we all come here to have our poems read.
• Please link back to dVerse from your site/blog.
• Have fun!