Field Marks: Between Three Seasons

I. Winter


"He knew it must have been a goose or a heron, but he decided that it was a crane. Its neck was tucked under its wingpit and the head was submerged in the river. He peered down at the water's surface and imagined the ancient ornamental beak. The bird's legs were spread out and one wing was uncurled as if it had been attempting to fly through ice." (Colum McCann, This Side of Brightness, 1998)

 

Happy Birthday, J. J. Audubon

a friend fishes
the same spot
each time winter
breaks the ice
enough for
catfish to rise
to meet
the dangling
trickster-curve:

above him,
huge, stately,
beautiful,
the white giant,
un-frozen,
lurks, looking
intodark water,
hungry for sun
in the shadowy
shallows:

let this be the
sign that every-
thing loved well
returns.



II. Spring


"The cardinal grosbeak calls out "what cheer” “what cheer;" " the bluebird says"purity,” “purity,” “purity;" the brown thrasher, or ferruginous thrush, according to Thoreau, calls out to the farmer planting his corn, "drop it,” “drop it,” “cover it up,” “cover it up" The yellow-breasted chat says "who,” “who" and "tea-boy" What the robin says, caroling that simple strain from the top of the tall maple, or the crow with his hardy haw-haw, or the pedestrain meadowlark sounding his piercing and long-drawn note in the spring meadows, the poets ought to be able to tell us. I only know the birds all have a language which is very expressive, and which is easily translatable into the human tongue." (John Burroughs, Birds and Poets, 1877)

from the Dusty Bookshelf's tiny books basket

sometime,

when the

winds come

& the grey,

green rain

settles all

arguments

about time,

listen for

a minute

to the shrill

chorus of

an acre of
county-land:

how many
voices does
it take to come
to terms with
togetherness?

if the poet
is to remain
employed,
let her ear

be strong,

let his eye

forgive itself:

there is nothing

worth writing
that doesn't
conform to
birdsong.



III. Summer

"The Western Blue-bird possesses many of the habits of our common kind. The male is equally tuneful throughout the breeding season. Mounting some projecting branch of an oak or low pine, he delivers his delightful ditty with great energy, extending his wings, and exerting all his powers as it were to amuse his sitting mate, or to allure attention to his short, often-repeated, but thrilling lay." (John James Audubon, Birds of America, 1840)


I know by sight the field-marks
of summer:

         blue coat                
                  brown band
                           mermaid tail

That travels take me to the taller places,
I rejoice:

               to know the peep peep of  hungersong.

Let there be eyes for seeing & a heart to hear;
May the little men,  my charge, find fruitful the search for the lost familiar.

from The Birds of America plates collection