It’s Poetry Friday!
We’re celebrating Marcie Flinchum Atkins
and her new picture book, WHEN TWILIGHT COMES:
The Animals and Plants That Bring Dawn and Dusk to Life
Join us!
WHEN TWILIGHT COMES:
The Animals and Plants That Bring Dawn and Dusk to Life
By Marcie Flinchum Atkins
Illustrated by Michelle Marin
O, Twilight
luminous pale
coaxes poetry from shadows,
a silent desert’s sacred unveiling…
gray cedes to green, blurring
liminal boundaries…
spring Verdin, uncertain– alights…
ocotillo’s crimson tassels her pot of gold,
surveys…she is alone–
before hummingbird and bumblebee wake,
before creosote closes her stomata…
twilight’s spell fading… a drowsy desert stirs…
elf owl takes one last look
©draft, PJF
It’s my favorite time of day — my desert theater before dawn.
Here’s a peek at my recent twilights…
The Verdin visited. I could not see the elf owl, only heard its chirt-chirt.
Patricia Franz writes picture books and poetry. She believes children, dogs, and sourdough have a lot to teach us about life, joy, and wonder. She has raised two boys, four dogs, and holds a master’s degree in Theology with a focus on children’s spirituality. Patricia, her husband, her Bernese Mountain dog, Bonny, and her sourdough starter split their time between the Arizona desert and the Sierra Nevada mountains. 
Patricia, as always, your desert scenes are breathtaking. Are those Joshua trees? I don’t know my dessert flora and fauna, so I enjoyed looking up pictures of the ocotillo, verdin, and creosote that are so neatly nestled in your spellbinding twilight poem!
I love that purple morning sky in your photo, Patricia. I have a vivid image of that little elf owl taking another look before it’s off to bed.
Beautiful purple morning sky, Patricia! Love that little elf owl taking one last look before it’s off to bed. Thank you. (I hope this isn’t a duplicate comment. InLinkz wasn’t cooperating this morning.
Oh, beautiful, Patricia. I hope I’m able to spend some time out west and see these desert sunrises, too. “[A] silent desert’s sacred unveiling” seems just right.
I got very excited when I read your subject line. 🙂 The starkness of the desert is PERFECT for twilight! Thank you for sharing. xo
What a beautiful and enchanting poem, Patricia! Gorgeous photos too.
Oh, those Joshuas! So lovely against that sky. And ‘ocotillo’s crimson tassels!’ What a gorgeous poem and a gorgeous oasis in “a dry and thirsty land.”
I love that you share the beauty of the desert with us, Patricia. I’ve visited with students and we loved seeing (meeting?) the elf owl. I don’t remember the verdin, so I looked it up, a beautiful bird! Love this: “ocotillo’s crimson tassels her pot of gold,”, such a sweet image! And, thanks for your special photos!
Your desert theater is beautiful, Patricia — “a silent desert’s sacred unveiling.”
Love the mention of the dear little elf owl too!
The vocabulary in this poem is so rich and special. I read it aloud twice!
“a drowsy desert stirs”–this whole poem is so lovely and full of specificity! And I love it!!! Thank you for sharing your spectacular photos of desert twilight!
How fun to visit the desert at twilight! You painted the. picture beautifully with your words!
What beautiful twilight. “poetry from shadows” is a stunning phrase.
Oh, I love this visit to a landscape that seems so foreign to me here in my wooded Appalachian hills. Gorgeous, all, Patricia – I love the “poetry from shadows,” too, and that last line, with its killer one-syllable-word punches (though still lyrical with all those “l’s”) — after lines of lush imagery — is perfect. (We don’t have those adorable elf owls here. Not adorable to their prey, I know, but wonderful creatures.)
Wow, Patricia, your words capturing the early morning twilight is just gorgeous. I smiled at the ocotillo’s personification there. She is a beauty!
Beautiful scenes. I love the heat of the day contrasted with the chill of night when I’m in the high desert… extreme temperature shift as well as the sun rising and setting marks dusk and dawn.
Love your elf owl in your poem, I have an elf owl in a painting, they are so tiny—Lovely colors, and gorgeous image too, thanks Patricia!