‘To the Caged Barn Owl’ and Other Poetry by Lauren E. Fields

To the Caged Barn Owl, II

I had thought you clean and blameless,
Blindly cast you as the shameless
Victim of baseless derision,
Gaped at in your iron prison,
Left unromantic and nameless.

I assumed your capture aimless.
Cruelly kept, they watched you regress,
Innocence made heavy laden,
I had thought.

But perhaps your pale and stainless
Pose is but the greatest offense.
What if you have earned your dungeon?
Donned the darkness of a damson,
Not been spotless in your deeds as
I had thought.

Kyrielle #1

I realize that I am lost
And, as such, paid the greatest cost.
I trust too well what I can see,
O God, be merciful to me.

I must be in, not of, this world.
Temptation left my mind impearled,
I chased that empty gleam blindly.
O God, be merciful to me.

I have refused you to your face,
Then run in fear from my disgrace,
And still believed myself worthy.
O God, be merciful to me.

Lauren E. Fields: I am a twenty-year-old student originally hailing from St. Louis, Missouri. I now reside in Cambridge, where I attend Harvard University as a rising junior at the College. I have been writing poetry since I was six years old, and have, over that substantial period of time, gone down many roads and explored many modes of expression with my poetry. I was just recently published in the current issue of Literary Laundry.

These poems are among the entries for the Society of Classical Poets’ 2012 Poetry Competition.

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