I learned the nightjar
Whip-poor-will
Can sense a soul departing,
Its wing chord
Precedes the darkness –
A nighthawk shadow
Hunting down the light
Like prey.
Does it carry us then
Through the sidereal night
To the end of stars?
Where black as diamonds
Carbon sings its last,
And wings fold tight in a
Last dive past gravity –
Our final compact
With certainty.
qbit 
Yeah! Glad you posted it here – this is good.
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Thanks, I still struggle with it. Not happy. But moving on.
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Don’t move on…
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All writing is re-writing. Someone smarter than me… or, at least someone published, said that — or something like it — once. I like this very much! But if you’re dissatisfied with it… edit and re-write. Don’t be afraid to murder your babies.
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The sound of the nightjar can be unsettling in many ways… love where you took this actually… no rework needed
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I really dig the connection between gravity and certainty.
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Thanks!
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‘And wings fold tight in a last dive past gravity – Our final compact with certainty’.. Beautifully deep!
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Oh but this is so wonderful — an answer, a possibility, to what happens when death appears to take us. Your imagery and ideas here are finely writ.
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Thank you so much!
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I love the first three lines of the second stanza. Truly beautiful. down South, we often equate the sounds of night birds with death, especially owls. I liked this poem immensely.
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Thank you!
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Leading us to the end of stars… Oh my, that’s wonderful!
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Well-crafted, Q, with a captivating theme you develop so well. That thunderous sound you hear? My applause!
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Thank you so much!
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My pleasure!
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That is an unusual sense of the whip-poor-will.
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I spent some time reading about whip-poor-wills, and apparently there is an old myth about that! It was all quite interesting.
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Love the sharpness of that darkness, then the dive past gravity ~ Made me think of death, the only certainty in life ~
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Thanks!
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Deep and delicious.
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The ‘carbon sings its last / and wings fold tight’ – is such an interesting image. Heck, the whole poem is full of intrigue and wonderful darkness.
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kaykuala
Our final compact with certainty’.
Life has a finality which is not open to choice as to when it is to happen!
Hank
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Stunning
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Thanks so much!!
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