The POEMS

Under each bird name, the poems are arranged chronologically; first lines are also given below each poem title, as a potentially helpful spur to the memory. For untitled poems, the first line only is given instead (and identified as such via enclosing quotation marks). I would eventually like to gloss/annotate all of the texts herein--to make it a true "anthology"--but for now I've merely added comments immediately after a few of the entries, in parentheses, as they occurred to me. NOTE: These poetry texts are provided only "for purposes such as criticism, comment . . . teaching, scholarship, or research."

Oops--Let's try that BIRD Species/Type INDEX. . . .

NEW (5/08): I've divided this "POEMS" section into EIGHT separate pages, for quicker loading. . . .

A-C     D-G     H-L     M-O     P-R     S-T     U-Z     Misc.

VULTURE, TURKEY        [photo: TCG]

VULTURES --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "Like large dark"

VULTURE --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)
      "Or perhaps vulture"

TURKEY VULTURE --David Chorlton (U.S.)
      "The bird of the blood"
 

WAGTAIL, PIED

LITTLE TROTTY WAGTAIL --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "Little trotty wagtail, he went in the rain"
 

WARBLER, JAPANESE BUSH-

NATURE NOTE --Issa (Japan)
      "A bush warbler comes"
 

WARBLER, RED-FACED

RED-FACED WARBLER --David Chorlton (U.S.)
      "Warblers fly through the waist"
 

WATERFOWL    {see also "DUCK," "GOOSE," etc.}        [pictured: Canada Goose (photo, TCG)]

TO A WATERFOWL --William Cullen Bryant (U.S.)
      "Whither, midst falling dew"

TO THE SNIPE --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "Lover of swamps"
        (--To all those who've played the "snipe-hunting" game on camping trips and assumed the purported goal to be sheer chimera: yes, there IS a real bird by that name!)

THE PEACE OF WILD THINGS --Wendell Berry (U.S.)
      "When despair for the world grows in me"
        (--Wordsworth's quietism meets the 20th century.)

SHORE BIRDS --W.S. Merwin (U.S.) [remote link: The Atlantic Online]
      "While I think of them they are growing rare"
 

WAXWING, CEDAR        [photo: TCG]

WAXWINGS --Robert Francis (U.S.)
      "Four Tao philosophers as cedar waxwings"
        (--wow--American Zen, or what!?)

HANGOVER --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])
      "this morning the cedar waxwings"
 

WHIP-POOR-WILL

from SPRING IN NEW-ENGLAND --Carlos Wilcox (U.S.)
      "Each day are heard, and almost every hour,"
        (--portraits of a snipe and two goatsuckers: nighthawk and Whip-poor-will)

from EVANGELINE --Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (U.S.)
      ". . . Loud and sudden and near"

WHIP-POOR-WILL --Donald Hall (U.S.)
      "As the last light"
 

WHITETHROAT, COMMON

THE HAPPY BIRD --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "The happy white throat on the sweeing bough"
 

WOODPECKER        [pictured: Red-bellied Woodpecker]

WOODPECKER SONG --Lance Henson (U.S. [Native American])
      "i am making this sound upon the earth"
        (--American Native meets Deep Imagism?)
 

WOODPECKER, DOWNY        [photo: TCG]

from MY APPLE TREE --Rose Terry Cooke (U.S.)
      "Out by my door the apple tree,"
 

WOODPECKER, GREEN (European Green ~)

"THE GREEN WOODPECKER FLYING UP AND DOWN" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
 

WOODPECKER, LEWIS'S

TWO BIRDS MEET LEWIS & CLARK (1805-1806) --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])
      "They call me Lewis's Woodpecker."
 

WOODPECKER, PILEATED

THE GEOGRAPHIC CENTER --Maxine Kumin (U.S.)
      "In they come, the Harpy-like great flappers,"
 

WOODPECKER, RED-HEADED

LOST YOUTH --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])
      "woodpecker, for all your"
 

WREN        [pictured: House Wren; ditto, audio]

from THE NEW PASTORAL --Thomas Buchanan Reed (U.S.)
      ". . . The russet wren glides in among the vines,"
 

WREN, CANYON

from THE CANYON WREN --Gary Snyder (U.S.)
      ". . . We paddle forward, backstroke, turn"
 

WREN, WINTER

THE WREN --Issa (Japan)
      "The wren"

from THE PRELUDE --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Our steeds remounted, and the summons given,"

THE CONTRAST: THE PARROT AND THE WREN --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Within her gilded cage confined,"

A WREN'S NEST --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Among the dwellings framed by birds"

THE WREN --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "Why is the cuckoos melody preferred"
 

WRYNECK, EURASIAN

THE WRYNECKS NEST --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "That summer bird its oft repeated note"
 

YELLOWHAMMER

THE YELLOWHAMMERS NEST --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
      "Just by the wooden brig a bird flew up"
 

YELLOWTHROAT, COMMON

from THE MARYLAND YELLOW-THROAT --Henry Van Dyke (U.S.)
      "While May bedecks the naked trees"
 

A-C     D-G     H-L     M-O     P-R     S-T     U-Z     Misc.

-=TO THE TOP

-=TO THE SPECIES INDEX

-=EXIT to COVER PAGE/CREDITS

-=NETIZEN NOTES (info on poem authors)