TODAY, I FEATURE AUTHOR MARY ADLER ON MY BLOG AS SHE EMBARKS ON HER WATCH “RWISA” WRITE Showcase Tour!
“SHADOWED BY DEATH”by Mary Adler
Oliver guards Sophia as they travel from an Italian cafe in Richmond to communist chicken farmers in Petaluma where her impetuous actions put them both in mortal danger.
When Oliver rescues a girl and her dog who are running for their lives, he discovers the dark secret at the heart of the threat to Sophia, a secret with its roots in Poland. When he does, he is forced to choose between enforcing the law as he knows it and jeopardizing Sophia or accepting a rougher kind of justice.
Shadowed by Death accurately portrays the fears and troubles of the communities of northern California as they bear the burdens of World War II and celebrate the gift of finding family among strangers.
BLACK NOTES BEAT
BY Mary Adler
I have studied and observed crows for years, and the more I’ve learned about them, the more I admire their complex family and flock relationships. They are intelligent, create and use tools, and they teach their skills to other crows. As Rev. Henry Ward Beecher said, “If men had wings and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough to be crows.”
Over the years, I have told my family and friends more than they ever wanted to know about crows. One person said, after hearing the stories I told about them, that she stopped trying to run crows down with her car. (There is so much wrong with that statement, that I don’t know where to begin.)
During the non-nesting period of the year, crows gather at night to roost together, sometimes in flocks of thousands. They are stealthy and take a roundabout way to the roosting place. They have good reason to be wary. For decades, humans have killed them, even dynamiting their roosting places at night.
Like many natural creatures, they are good and bad, depending on your viewpoint, and not everyone appreciates their beauty. But I love to watch them streaming across the sky–one small group after another–as they return from foraging to join the flock. When they are together, those who have found a safe source of food will tell the others where it is. They share, but only within their own flock.
One evening, after watching them move across the sky, I wrote this:
Black Notes Beat
Black notes beat
Unfurling dusk
Across the bruising sky.
Quarter notes, half notes
Rise and fall.
Whole notes
Rest on treetops.
An arpeggio of eighth notes
Silently swirls,
Scribing a nocturne
in the fading light.
Softly they spill
to the nighttime roost:
Rustling,
murmuring,
settling,
hushed.
Now the still moment,
the last note fading,
No bows, no curtsies,
No fear of reviews.
They need no applause to perform their works.
Thank you for supporting this member along the WATCH “RWISA” WRITE Showcase Tour today! We ask that if you have enjoyed this member’s writing, please visit their Author Page on the RWISA site, where you can find more of their writing, along with their contact and social media links, if they’ve turned you into a fan.
We ask that you also check out their books in the RWISA or RRBC catalogs. Thanks, again, for your support and we hope that you will follow each member along this amazing tour of talent! Don’t forget to click the link below to learn more about this author:
Mary Adler RWISA Author Page
PERSPECTIVES 
Thank you, Balroop, for stopping by and commenting.
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Crows have always been associated with noise and their appearance has never endeared them to anyone. My grandma told me that they bring tidings and when they sit and caw at the house roof, a guest is on the way to visit us! Thanks for sharing those interesting facts about them Mary, along with a lovely poem.
Nice post Joy.
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I am happy to welcome you today on my blog, Mary.
Talking about Crows. In my culture, we believe that they are birds of bad omen. They carry bad news! When we see one or more of them perched on the roof of a house, it means that someone in that house will die or is dead.
In Palmdale, CA, where I am now, we see a lot of them in the mornings. They are also desert birds. Whenever I see them, I say a little prayer. 🙏
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Joy, crows are interesting birds. I never see them at all around where I live. They showed up only once, when I was living at home. My mother saw them in her back yard. It turned out to be a bad omen for the country that day — the 1967 Detroit Riots.
Mary Congratulations on your tour and Joy thank you for hosting.
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