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Birds and poetry (1 Viewer)

The Hungry Robin
Maryann Foster
A ROBIN likes a busy spade --
To perch and swoop, to beak his fill with worms and flies where weeds are laid,
Of such stuff his dreams are made, so do not let this Redbreast fade in winter's world of chill.
His food is buried underground he cannot dig a hole,
Frosty fingers spread around, snow lies thick in drift and mound,
And none can hear his muffled sound as he bares his starving soul.

Supply him with a source of scraps, a crust of bread a bit of seed,
Water from the garden taps, a cosy place for cold night naps.
Keep him safe from life's mishaps, this special friend in need.
 
Tanny,you are a star.Thankyou.Cannot belie ve that members are still posting to this thread,thankyou everyone .Take care ,Tanny ,will be thinking of you.I guess I will have to hunt around for a poem or two .
 
Curlew
Brenda G Macrow
I hear you still, a disembodied voice
raised in a rippling song of ecstasy,
Bidding my heart rejoice.
Spirit of purple moor,
Of lonely glen and ocean-fretted shore,
You haunt me in the sunlight and the rain.
Unseen and free,
Yet lingering ever in my memory
You call to me again,
Sweet music of the Highlands to my ears,
Giving me back lost years.

The Call of the Curlew
Maggie Smith
Green waves break, Flecked by grey, Chill winds are raging,
Stinging sand blows ashore, Swept by the sea;

Seaweed comes racing in, Brake waters lashing; Long gone,
The summer friends, Tanned and carefree.

The wet beach Curves out of sight, Bleak rain fast falling;
Far over the salt marsh Now screened mistily

A cry comes Through wind-bent reed; Curlews are calling-
The memorable sound of The haunting "Curlwee ".
 
A couple of mine from a while ago...

The Gathering

At a distance black snowflakes swirling in the air
Then closer still changing like smoke clouds
Thousands of starlings wheeling everywhere
Gathering together to roost in their crowds
Then down they go in a waterfall
Cascading into the reeds
All answering the call
Like a broken string of beads

Val.

Robin Song

A nightingale sang in Berkley Square?
That can't be true, it never lived there,
But a Robin singing in darkness chill
Of night before light, he will!

The time, five fortyfive, this early morn
When I heard that song, long before dawn.
His Winter melody rang sweet and clear
I knew that he was perching near.

By our porch window, in the tree
He sang his heart out there for free
T'was as if his song was just for me.

Val
 
Two good poems Tanny and from you as well Val.

I know that I have posted this before but given the 100 years anniversary of its extinction was September 1914
I think this poem about the Passenger Pigeon is especially poignant?

regards
Merlin

Passenger Pigeon

One and then another
and then another just the same
Then dark and living clouds descend
with the thunder of a billion wings
A mighty mass of movement
The thick and musty stench
The unheard of sound surrounding
the breaking of the branch
"Here they come!"; the cry is heard
Then movement on the ground
A deadly storm is coming quick
with greed and violent sounds
With pole or net or gun
the targets are the same
Though a million are left for dead
the loss is seen as gain
Then away the clouds arise
A billion to their fate
Dashed to the ground from different skies
to pillow, plate, or crate
The living clouds descend
Each one marked with a numbered wing
Billions are millions are thousands
and then; one is left to sing

by David Staley
 
I remember that Passenger Pigeon poem, what a tragedy was that loss to a country.
Very well done Val, I like those two.

My first poem posted this time doesn't mention a bird but I felt a mood that I liked in it.
All Natures Colours
Stephen Albrow.

How I hated rainy weather, till, one stormy autumn day,
While strolling through the heather, all natures colours came my way.
Through the clouds the sun came creeping, golden rays flashed all around,
Then a rainbow started leaping to the heavens from the ground.

I saw red and blue and yellow; I saw indigo and green.
All natures coloures shouted, "Hellow", All determined to be seen.
As I stood there fondly gazing, raindrops falling on my face,
What I saw was so amazing, it assured me of natures grace.

In the past I'd fled from thunder, hid inside when storm-clouds brewed,
But the rainbow I stood under made me change my attitude,
Now I don't fear rainy weather, it's part of natures design,
Joining sun and rain together, she makes all her colour's shine.


Daily Bread
Kathleen Gillum
I strolled across the village green one morning during May
The sun streamed down its golden beams upon the waiting day.
Breadcrumbs scattered for the birds Lie by a wooden seat,
And an old lady steals away as if on slippered feet.

Then fluted notes from tiny throats surround me everywhere,
As feathered wings, all fluttering come skimming through the air.
From boughs and treetops they descend Just waiting to be fed,
Watching for their human friend who scatters daily bread.
 
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Ditto. Sounds like a very worthwhile book indeed. Among the excerpts, I was particularly struck by the crow poem

I just tried to order the book from Amazon but to no avail: it recognizes the title alright but there's no actual listing. A temporary glitch I trust. I'm hoping for a Kindle edition to leaven the big lump of field guides on my iPad but I'll settle for ink & paper if I have to.
 
A couple of days ago I went for a drive to see the high tide by New Brighton on the Wirral and enjoyed a splendid day in the wind and sunshine. When I took a look where the birds gather on a pontoon in the Marine Lake I photographed a variety of birds and among them was a rare bird from America, the Laughing Gull. Today when undergoing my third chemotherapy session I decided to write a poem to while away the time. Thanks for keeping this poetry site from disappearing into the archives.

Laughing Gull

Wild wind over the Irish Sea, wave spume flashing a rainbow from a sudden beam of sunlight.
Grey clouds racing the sky, patches of colabat blue showing between grey and white of billowing clouds.
I stand at the Mockbegger sea wall, camera ready for the spraying spume,
Wave hit the wall, “Whoosh-whoosh”, splash up high beside me,
Wind send it back and saves me from soaking.
“Keow-keow”, Gull yells overhead, twisting and turning,uplifted and plunging,
Dancing in the wind over the waves.
I go down to the New Brighton Marine Lake, Sheltered I find Gulls, Waders on lake pontoon.
Redshanks, Dunlin, Turnstones and Sandling, Purple Sandpipers with Cormorant and Gulls.
Bird men with cameras and powerful scopes, Stare down at an unusual bird,
A wandering American, blown over the Ocean, Its unusual laugh call sadly not heard.
Laughing Gull, the only one in the British Isles Sits with waders sheltering from the wind,
Young bird, immature feathers showing in sunlight.Black legs and beak shining dark and bright.
My heart is uplifted with all I have seen today, It makes me glad to feel so much alive.
I wished only I could join with the gulls in their play, And prey the American adventurer to survive.

Tanny 25th February 2015
 
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Here is a poem from the Australian poet A.D.Hope
It is not that short but well worth the effort to read this special poem.

Best regards
Merlin

The Death of a Bird

For every bird there is this last migration;
Once more the cooling year kindles her heart;
With a warm passage to the summer station
Love pricks the course in lights across the chart.

Year after year a speck on the map divided
By a whole hemisphere, summons her to come;
Season after season, sure and safely guided,
Going away she is also coming home;

And being home, memory becomes a passion
With which she feeds her brood and straws her nest;
Aware of ghosts that haunt the heart's possession
And exiled love mourning within the breast.

The sands are green with a mirage of valleys;
The palm-tree casts a shadow not its own;
Down the long architrave of temple or palace
Blows a cool air from moorland scarps of stone.

And day by day the whisper of love grows stronger,
The delicate voice, more urgent with despair,
Custom and fear constraining her no longer,
Drives her at last on the waste leagues of air.

A vanishing speck in those inane dominions,
Single and frail, uncertain of her place.
Alone in the bright host of her companions,
Lost in the blue unfriendliness of space.

She feels it close now, the appointed season:
The invisible thread is broken as she flies;
Suddenly, without warning, without reason,
The guiding spark of instinct winks and dies.

Try as she will the trackless world delivers
No way, the wilderness of light no sign,
The immense and complex map of hills and rivers
Mocks her small wisdom with its vast design.

And darkness rises from the eastern valleys,
And the winds buffet her with their hungry breath,
And the great earth, with neither grief not malice,
Receives the tiny burden of her death.
 
The Owl
Downhill I came, hungry, and yet not starved,
Cold, yet had heat within me that was proof
Against the north wind; tired, yet so that rest
Had seemed the sweetest thing under a roof.

Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest,
Knowing how hungry, cold, and tired was I.
All of the night was quite barred out except
An owl's cry, a most melancholy cry.

Shaken out long and clear upon the hill
No merry note, nor cause of merriment,
But one telling me plain what I escaped
And others could not, that night, as in I went.

And salted was my food, and my repose,
Salted and sobered too, by the bird's voice
Speaking for all who lay under the stars,
Soldiers and poor, unable to rejoice.
Edward Thomas


regards

Merlin
 
Excellent poems both, Merlin; looks like there's life in the old thread yet! I only wish I had something new to contribute.
 
Emily Dickinson wrote ~

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -
That perches in the soul -
And sings the tune without the words -
And never stops - at all -

And sweetest - in the Gale - is heard -
And sore must be the storm -
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm -

I’ve heard it in the chillest land -
And on the strangest Sea -
Yet - never - in Extremity,
It asked a crumb - of me

Cool thread , birds and poetry are my two fave things! :D
 
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