Brian, Here are some you may be able to use on your walk with the group. They are by Graham Alcorn from the Blue Mtns NSW from his book The Bird Baths of Umbigumbi Trevor Quested, Bundaberg
Balance of Nature
One day a Sitella, going down,
Passed a Tree Creeper, going up.
“And how are the insects, up?’ ‘
“And how are the insects, down?’ ‘
The insects up on which I sup
Are juicy and divine.’
‘The insects down on which I dine
Are sweet as honey wine.’
And so they live in harmony
Though they forage the bark of
the selfsame tree.
Fish of Air
Wheeling, soaring, circling,
swooping on sickle wings,
out of the storm clouds come the Swifts,
swimming in the wind.
The boundless air is their ocean,
it’s fronts and pressure systems
their tides and currents.
A nightly cliff face to cling to
and launch into the dawn,
a rock ledge to glue a nest to
is all they need of the earth.
Variegated Fairy Wren (Malurus lamberti)
Fairy Wren, Fairy Wren,
Into the bushes, then Out again,
In again.
All we can see of you,
Field glasses peering,
are Flashes of blue.
Malurus, Malurus,
Onward you lure us,
Curious,
Furious,
Wither you will.
All we want is to look at you.
Please stay still!
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Thank you to the many kind souls who replied to my query about bird poems. There were lots of poems that were new to me, or which I had read but forgotten.
I continue to welcome bird poems, but won’t be able to reply for a couple of weeks (am off to Lamington National Park, among other places).
My own favourite bird poems would be Ode to a Nightingale, by John Keats, followed by To a Skylark, by Percy Shelley.
I also love this piece of writing from Jonathan Franzen’s excellent memoir The Discomfort Zone: “the California towhee generally, the whole species, reliably uniform in its plumage and habits, was like a friend whose energy and optimism had escaped the confines of a single body to animate roadsides and back yards across thousands of square miles. […] Taken as a whole, [birds] were like a companion with an inexhaustibly rich personality.”
Brian
“Brian Hawkins” Sent: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 1:05 PM [Birding-Aus] Favourite Bird Poems
running a couple of walks, dealing with poetry about birds, at the upcoming Bellingen Readers and Writers Festival (http://bellingenwritersfestival.com.au/). I have many poems already, but there must be thousands of good bird poems that I don’t know about. So I was wondering: poems? ===============================
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I am so glad someone remembers Graham’s poems. Birdbaths of Umbigumbi is long out of print but in 2008 John Low, Carol Probets and myself published “Sipping the Nectar” the bird notes of Graham Alcorn. This contains articles and poems written by Graham over many years, mostly published in Blue Mountains Conservation Society newsletters. It’s a good read and available from Carol or myself for $23 including postage. Profits go to Consoc. and Birds Australia.
Russell, is this OK for the list?
Jill Dark
Free me as free are the birds of the wilds, the wanderers of unseen paths. Free me as free are the deluge of rain, and the storm that shakes its locks and rushes on to its unknown end. Free me as free is the forest fire, as is the thunder that laughs aloud and hurls defiance to darkness.
Rabindranath Tagore, CROSSING
Stray birds of summer come to my window to sing and fly away.
And yellow leaves of autumn, which have no songs, flutter and fall there with a sigh. Rabindranath Tagore, STRAY BIRDS
But my all time favourite (although not a poem) –
I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.² Henry David Thoreau.