Some may know that I paint with words as well as acrylic/oil paint.  This poem came to mind as I worked in the studio on the latest commission... maybe it will brighten your day, or take you on a little mental vacation!

Lowcountry Morning

Long-billed heron stretches his neck

Searching for frogs, flickers of fishes

Looks to the sky as the morning unfolds

As Darkness gives way.

Drowsy owl twists its talon-tipped fists

Around the branch, collects his wise thoughts,

Wings folded and neat, closes one eye then another

Dreaming of mice in the open, rabbit unaware.

Peeps and whistles, short chips and chirps,

Call from the palmetto and scrub trees

Along the hula skirted tidal creek,

Long dry grass holding sleepy bird secrets.

Brackish water seeps and trickles

On its way from the sea to the marsh,

Embracing the sand and the grass,

The exposed oyster blind in its bed.

Alligator slips through thick mud and muck,

Catching the first sizzling rays of day,

As the fire disk blazes through long needle pine

And the Darkness gives way.

Used with permission

copyright 2011 Karen Burnette Garner

Published in 2011 Reach of Song - Anthology of the Georgia Poetry Society (available at Amazon.com)