A Visit from Ruru: owl inspiration

Ruru in my garden

A few weeks ago I heard a commotion in the garden - the blackbirds were complaining, it sounded like they were giving another bird a good telling off. I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. That's when I saw a ruru sitting on a branch having its daytime nap. The owl didn't seem at all bothered by the blackbirds and eventually they gave up and moved into another part of the garden. 

I've heard ruru or morepork at night - their distinctive call echoes in the gully nearby - but I never imagined they might be hunting in our garden. These owls hunt wētā, moths, cicadas, small birds such as silver eyes, rats and mice. They need large trees with holes or cavities for their nests. We have some large trees but I don't know if any would be large enough for them to nest in.

There's something about their large eyes and piercing stare that is slightly unnerving, even when they are sleepy like this one. Meeting this ruru inspired me to write a little haiku.

Forest Haiku

 

Two of my haiku were published in a fine line Spring 2021, the magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society. 

About haiku 

Maybe you learned to write haiku at school and were told haiku were poems of three lines with 5 -7 -5 syllables. Today haiku can be 2 or 3 lines and are almost always less than 17 syllables. Haiku use strong images to convey the essence of a moment in nature.

Notes: Krummholz is a word that English language has borrowed from German to mean a tree that is stunted, bent or twisted. It wasn't that easy finding photos that were an exact match, as these haiku were written about moments of seeing that weren't necessarily captured by a camera.

Find out more about writing haiku

This is written as a guide for teachers, but is useful for anyone considering writing haiku, especially the definition and explanation of haiku on page 3:

https://poetrysocietynz.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/learning-to-write-haiku-a-teachers-guide-k-raine.pdf

Citizen Science Inspired Poetry

Beachcombers, Pukerua Bay

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Reef heron from 2019

Reef Heron

The smooth grey rock

on the jagged shore

lifts up

separates from the shadows

two legs stalk

head darts

beak breaks the mirror

surface of the pool 

reef heron snaps and swallows

becomes rock again.

Yesterday I was down at Pukerua Bay beach, the water was glassy blue and the rocks dark shadows. I watched as a rock changed shape, became a reef heron, snapped some food and settled back again into it's rock-like posture. I'm having fun writing nature poetry!

Join the campaign for Earth - our other mother

My instagram contribution to the Our Other Mother campaign

Nature fills me with wonder, I'm in awe of its beauty and power, I share this wonder with parents and children in the books that I write. Most recently I've written about being Nature Heroes. I believe each of us can be a Nature Hero, no matter how young or old or where we live. But I know that people can act on emotions, they need to care enough to take the first steps. I love the "Our Other Mother" campaign because it gives us a thousand reasons to care. Each contribution to the campaign reminds us of the "mother-child" relationship that exists between us and Planet Earth, the source of our life.

Get Creative and Join in

Here's what Parents for Climate Aotearoa have to say about how to get involved:

Young or old, professional illustrator or child artist, everyone can contribute

Visit  https://www.parentsforclimatenz.org/our-other-mother for more details

Kids Writing About Nature - and some tips for parents

Last year I ran some writing workshops with local children for Porirua Harbour Trust. I introduced the children to the idea of writing poems that could take on the shape of what they are writing about.
Here are some of their Raindrop poems:

From "The Current 2" Porirua Harbour Trust 2019

This kind of poetry is called Concrete Poetry.  It doesn't have to have a line around it, the words can be placed to make the shape, like this:

A concrete poem about a pied stilt