Lone gull at dawn
sits calmly in repose.
Papaya stained sky,
mirrored hue on ocean tide.
Lone gull at dawn
anticipates promise of new day.
Spreads wings to full span,
ready for flight.
Pauses only moments
in rippled sand by lapping waves.
I breathe in the silence,
a beautiful hushed scene.
Lone gull runs gracefully
barely touching span of sea
then lifts, gloriously,
soars toward the unknown.
Poem written in response to Laura Bloomsbury’s prompt, Flights of Fancy, which appeared on July 28 at dVerse. Posting it today as I host dVerse’s Open Link Night. We are a virtual pub where writers from around the world share their poetry. Come join us!
Photo taken September 2019 at Provincetown, Cape Cod.
lillian the home poet 
A beautiful poem and gorgeous photograph Lillian, I love how the gull soars gloriously towards the unknown 🧡
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Thank you! So glad you enjoyed! I always adore getting up to watch the dawn when we are in Ptown! 🙂
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Sublimely beautiful
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Thank you!
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You are most welcome
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This is so divine and beautiful penned with grace. I especially love the repetition in each beginning line; it’s lovely.
“Papaya stained sky,
mirrored hue on ocean tide.” <– These lines are so vividly expressed and wonderful. They really stood out to me with the imagery of a sunset and the dark ocean tide. Remarkably evocative and pleasing to my mind's eye.
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Thank you Lucy, for your wonderful response to the post. I truly appreciate it.
PS: Until about 20 minutes before dVerse opened, I had “mango stained sky” and suddenly I remembered that most mangos are yellow and it was the wonderful color of the papaya that I was really thinking of! So I changed it to papaya! I think a mango stained sky would be that ominous yellowish sky that comes before a tornado?
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I love the feel you give here of the gull’s take-off.
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They are truly amazing to watch….most especially at dawn and when there is a lone gull. 🙂
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I like the repetition of “lone gull”, and the ending carrries us up with it!
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Glad you enjoyed, Sarah! 🙂
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I can see this. I can feel this. So calming.
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So glad. 🙂
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Lovely. I can feel the breeze lifting those wings.
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So glad you enjoyed!
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Airy and oceanfully beautiful Lillian. Thanks for hosting!
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Hi Ron! I always enjoy tending the pub. Glad you enjoyed this one….I’m going to have to remember that word “oceanfully” – love it! 🙂
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This is transporting. You lift me into the quiet sacred beauty of the dawn and then we fly.
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Ooooh, I love your reply here Victoria! It is exactly how I feel and why I seem to always wake up early during our annual two weeks in Provincetown, to sit on the deck and watch the dawn arrive…enjoying the stillness and on this particular morning, this long gull.
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I loved this. It is always a marvel to watch a bird take flight, and you took us there to the seashore to enjoy the sight. Thank you!
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It is amazing, right? I most especially love that initial run, especially when the only sound you hear at dawn is the splashing of their feet in the very shallow water until they lift majestically and soar!
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such a serene morning, I was there with you!
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So glad to take you to one of my favorite places…..Provincetown at Cape Cod…and most especially in the quiet of dawn.
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early morning is my sacred time, love it!
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I love the lone gull repetition as he has breakfast while you watch! Well done! Nature does take ones breath away!
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It surely does! Glad you enjoyed.
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Gorgeous imagery! For a moment there, I was taken to the seaside at dawn ✨
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So glad I could take you to Cape Cod, if even for just a moment. 🙂
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Those of us who have walked such shores know well this halcyon pause before dawn. For those who have not, you pour it in full here.
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Thank you for your kind words here, Brendan. Glad you enjoyed.
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Gulls are beautiful in flight. (K)
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Indeed they are! 🙂
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Do your gulls steal food out of your hands like ours do? Love the poem, Lillian.
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That happened to me years ago at Schoodic Peninsula, the northern most part of Acadia National Park. Took my sandwich as I recall! They don’t do that in Provincetown…..I think they have plenty of crabs, etc to eat there. We do often see them hovering above the rocks outside our place, and dropping a clam over and over again until it breaks and they gobble up their meal then. 🙂
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They are quite vicious down here on the south coast of Sussex. People are clawed, and children are often injured by them. They steal ice cream cones, chips, burgers, everything you might be trying to eat.
It’s nice to know that some of them are better mannered than our winged-beasties.
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Love the grace and color. Wanna be that gull.
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Some days, me too! 🙂
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Lovely poem. The scene it presents is so real.
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So glad you enjoyed!
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Lillian,
I especially like, “Papaya stained sky,” and tonight I wish I could fly away. Some days I envy the birds. Take care.
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Me too!!! Glad you enjoyed.
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Is that the peninsula/island cut off from the shore at high tide? If so, I once wrote an entire rhymed children’s picture book sitting out on the patio of our room and looking out at that exact view.
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Beautiful! Sunrise and sunset from a beach is always magical. I love papaya stained sky.
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