Renée Owen

Doe Watching

Outside the tiny cabin a rutting buck chases a white-tailed doe guarding her fawns. In the distance a flock of egrets drifts up from the river, their gleaming bodies an arrow pointing west. Amongst oaks and evergreens, the maples, elms, and willow don yellow and crimson finery. On the table, I lay out supplies for making art. A tempting array of colors for handmade abaca paper, its wrinkled skin molded into globes. A meditation of making, dabbing ink into crevices. First walnut and tea, then cocoa, bronze and ocher. The pigments of old earthen walls, of towns bombed to dust, villagers seeking safety from the machinations of war. Last rays of the sun slant low on the horizon. The doe, having outwitted the buck, herds her fawns onto the gold meadow. They graze beneath gnarled branches on downed apples, the textures and palette of my ink-stained fingers.

nighthawk
something loose inside me
howls

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About the Author

Renée Owen’s award-winning books include This One Life (Backbone Press), Alone On A Wild Coast (Snapshot Press), and Scent of the Past. . . Imperfect (Two Autumns Press). A psychotherapist and an exhibiting visual artist, she enjoys performing her poetry with her musician husband and hiking the wilds near their Northern California home.

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