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Building Birds

Hunting images and words, entering this in Gabrielle’s Challenge, link after poem

By Harper LewisPublished 4 months ago Updated 2 months ago 1 min read
Top Story - September 2025
Image created with chatGPT

Images bombard me,

phrases running around in my head

with no place to land

and rest their beautiful words and images,

the jigsaw puzzle

still in pieces on the dining room table,

completion at bay, teasing, waiting

in fragments, refusing

to allow dinner to be served.

Scarlet staccato sunlight,

the sun on summer sorghum,

pathetic puddles lying muddily near raging rivers,

criticizing the flow

from stagnation

ending in evaporation.

These misfit images revolve around my mind,

revising themselves,

circling like hawks,

keen eyes laser focused on the landscape below,

searching for prey, another smaller image

to tear talons into, snatching it up

and carrying it far away, only to smash it

on the ground and devour it,

word by delicious word,

becoming a more complete, more complex bird,

perhaps ready to build a nest,

an aerie atop the most ancient conifer,

a sacred, unstructured sanctuary

composed of sticks, ribbons, straw,

and miscellaneous scraps and threads

of this and that, things you would never

recognize as useful, much less

beautiful,

where other birds will someday

peck their way out of their fragile shells,

fierce, dainty things

with fluffy feathers

and screaming beaks.

✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️✍️

https://shopping-feedback.today/poets/the-creative-endeavor-unofficial-poetry-challenge%3C/p%3E%3C/div%3E%3C/div%3E%3C/div%3E%3Cstyle data-emotion-css="1x3zcuc-StoryContent">.css-1x3zcuc-StoryContent{pointer-events:none;}

Free VerseStream of Consciousness

About the Creator

Harper Lewis

I'm a weirdo nerd who’s extremely subversive. I like rocks, incense, and all kinds of witchy stuff. Intrusive rhyme bothers me.

I’m known as Dena Brown to the revenuers and pollsters.

MA English literature, College of Charleston

Reader insights

Outstanding

Excellent work. Looking forward to reading more!

Top insights

  1. Compelling and original writing

    Creative use of language & vocab

  2. Easy to read and follow

    Well-structured & engaging content

  3. Excellent storytelling

    Original narrative & well developed characters

  1. Expert insights and opinions

    Arguments were carefully researched and presented

  2. Eye opening

    Niche topic & fresh perspectives

  3. Heartfelt and relatable

    The story invoked strong personal emotions

  4. On-point and relevant

    Writing reflected the title & theme

Add your insights

Comments (11)

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  • Lamar Wiggins23 days ago

    The Metaphor here is working sooo well. Happy belated congrats on Top Story! Thoroughly enjoyed!

  • Paul Stewartabout a month ago

    Look at you before we even met and my clear svengali influence was upon you you were already a winner. 🤣 This was astonishing and a great look at your process. Especially now I've consumed a lot. Well done lassie

  • Shirley Belkabout a month ago

    You had me with the image...all my favorite colors...all the way into the deep, the whole time my fluffy feathers shaking about as I peck!

  • Matthew J. Frommabout a month ago

    Ahh so this is what it looks like to follow a prompt 🤔

  • Julie Lacksonen2 months ago

    Lovely piece! I especially like the phrase, "Scarlet staccato sunlight." 💜

  • Milan Milic2 months ago

    The imagery in this piece is absolutely mesmerizing — the way thoughts and fragments take flight as hawks circling above is both vivid and haunting. I love how the poem captures the restless beauty of creativity, refusing to settle yet always building toward something sacred. Truly captivating work!

  • This story by Milan Millic fed so many of my birds: https://shopping-feedback.today/fiction/borrowed-moon?modal=open

  • K.B. Silver 4 months ago

    I love the metaphor, congrats on top story.

  • Jamye Sharp4 months ago

    Never considered the imagery of ideas and distractions as birds of many kinds. Very interesting.

  • AJ CRYPTO4 months ago

    nice writing

  • Marilyn Glover4 months ago

    Breathtaking work, Harper! This is a poem I will surely read again. Congratulations on your top story!

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