From the collection The Immediate and No Sooner, published in 2021.
In the Midst of So Much
twice the owl
in the far-off said
something I
heard it loud
in the darkness but no more
again that morning
as daylight
dragged itself awake
not that day
not ever.
That I heard him speak I know
it was not to me.
12/1/20
shadorma chain
Claudia McGill Writes Poetry, Did You Know That? 
There is something special about hearing an owl, even if the message was not for you.
Yes, you are so right. They always have seemed something mysterious to me, not like hawks or sparrows or the birds you see in the daytime; I have thought it is because they are night creatures, there is just something different about them…
I love to hear owls. We had a lot of them around our property when we lived in Scotland so I heard them almost every night. We also used to enjoy dissecting their pellets.
Now that is something I have never done but I have read about. And I would love one time in my life to have that experience (of pellets I mean).
I bet you could find them on one of your walks. I have also known teachers to order sterile pellets for their students to dissect. My kids and I just used to dissect them with bare hands and then would thoroughly wash our hands afterwards. Usually the bones all belong to small rodents but I once pulled out an entire skeletonized bat wing.
Laura, I am totally envious of that bat wing. And I mean that sincerely.
Then I wish you a future filled with awesome pellet finds.
From Frances
Cornford: “O why do
you walk through
the fields in
gloves, Missing so much and so
much? Eliot said:
I have heard
the mermaids singing,
each to each.
I do not
think that they will sing to me.”
But the owls are yours.
Thank you. I hope so. Owls have a strong pull on me, I think the darkness, the night sky, tree branches high in the air, the mystery, the being out at night when people are not around. All these things.