Subject: [Tweeters] avian poetry
Date: Mar 6 17:56:13 2011
From: J. Hoefer/A. Cunha - shadblow at frontier.com


Tweeters -

When I poke around in antique malls, secondhand or junk stores, I keep
an eye out for "bird books" - years ago I found a copy of The Bird-
Lovers' Anthology (compiled by Scollard and Rittenhouse, 1930). All
bird poems. It's a lovely collection - the poems are gathered into
groups with titles such as Ethereal Minstrels, The Summer Choir,
Clerics (of course the Corvidae and pals), Birds of the Snowy
Solstice, etc.

It's a treat to find poems that speak of the birds who enrich our
lives. For example, contemporary poet Mary Oliver often writes about
birds:

The Swan
Did you too see it, drifting, all night, on the black river?
Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air -
An armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as it leaned
into the bondage of its wings; a snowbank, a bank of lilies,
Biting the air with its black beak?
Did you hear it, fluting and whistling
A shrill dark music - like the rain pelting the trees - like a waterfall
Knifing down the black ledges?
And did you see it, finally, just under the clouds -
A white cross Streaming across the sky, its feet
Like black leaves, its wings Like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it, in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figured out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?



Anne Cunha
Lynnwood, WA












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