What I Learnt from the Owl by Anna Saunders

how to hunt in silken plumage

tooled up with talons and hooks

how to split the seam of the night

with saw-tooth wings

how to consume all I kill

yet stay hungry

how to haunt sleep

my head - a phantom full moon

how to be outcast and avenger

spectre and seraphim, winged god and ghoul

bladed angel dropping from the sky.

What I learnt from the owl

how to voice my darkness

in hisses, in shrieks

how to drop from the heights,

heart shaped face falling to earth

as if love itself were plummeting.

---

Anna Saunders is the author of Communion, (Wild Conversations Press), Struck, (Pindrop Press) Kissing the She Bear, (Wild Conversations Press), Burne Jones and the Fox ( Indigo Dreams) and Ghosting for Beginners ( Indigo Dreams, Spring 2018) described by Fiona Sampson as a 'beautifully evocative read'. Anna has had poems published in journals and anthologies, which include Ambit, The North, New Walk Magazine, Amaryllis, Iota, Caduceus, Envoi, The Wenlock Anthology, Eyeflash, and The Museum of Light. She has been described as ‘a poet who surely can do anything’ by The North and ‘a poet of quite remarkable gifts’ by Bernard O’Donoghue. Anna holds 4 Arts Council Awards for her work.

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