Cornell’s bird identification app, Merlin, is on my phone. It helps me identified bird around me by their songs. This combination of birds showed up this morning in the woods. Immediately, their different traits sparked a poem. Enjoy the poem and listening to birds.
Merlin app screenshot
Listening to the forest birds
Broad-Winged Hawk
Unexpectedly high-pitched
whistle drags across the sky
like a flat line heart.
Exchange of kill for life
spread in Kettles’ territory.
Rose Breasted Grosbeak
Prolific song bounces like a child’s ball,
piccolo on a paddle.
Seed cracker, bug eater
hungry for the bounty of awakening earth
and attentions of a mate.
The greedy squawk of Bluejay
cuts through the melodic tune of prettier birds
for beauty is in song, not feathers.
His loudness does not quiet their poems,
but makes their tones all the sweeter.
The iconic woodsy tremolo of Wood Thrush
catches the ear,
wraps around something inside,
something still,
connected umbilical to trees.
Like the birds,
we cannot it live without these trees
Forest
Spirits of the forest
Hunter Hawk
songbird Beauty,
Indifference of Jay,
Mystery of Wood Thrush.
And me reverberating words,
symbiotic dance
with trees in my blood.
A song of generations
Spirit of the forest too
sloughing off mechanism and machines
returning to bird song
at once Hawk, Grosbeak, Jay and Wood Thrush
at once Hunter, Beauty, Indifference, Mystery.
CreatetheDawn 