* * The POEMS * *


An E-ANTHOLOGY of AVIAN POETRY


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    * *     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. . . .

  

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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.  

 
 

HARRIER, NORTHERN (Marsh Hawk)

* MARSH HAWKS --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "In the morning they glide"
 

HAWK        [pictured: Red-shouldered Hawk]

* FOUR POEMS FOR A CHILD SON --Simon J. Ortiz (U.S. [Native American])
      "It has to do with full moments"

* HAWK --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "Hawk"

* I, THE HAWK --Charles Albano (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "Weightless,"
 

HAWK, COOPER'S

* HAWK --Stephen Dunn (U.S.)
      "What a needy, desperate thing"

* COOPER'S HAWK --David Chorlton (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "Next to its mirror in the pines"

* COOPER'S HAWK --Karen Stromberg (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "In the summer"
 

HAWK, RED-TAILED    {see also "HAWK," above}

* HURT HAWKS --Robinson Jeffers (U.S.)
      "The broken pillar of the wing jags from the clotted shoulder"
 

HAWK, SHARP-SHINNED

* FEEDING THE BIRDS --Robert Cording (U.S.)
      "I wanted to do something"
        (--Bird-hawk near a feeder: the war continues. . . .)
 

HERON, GRAY

* "THE PASSER BYE OFT STOPS HIS HORSE TO LOOK" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)

* "HIGH OVERHEAD THAT SILENT THRONE" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)

* THE GRAY HERON --Galway Kinnell (U.S.)
      "It held its head still"
 

HERON, GREAT BLUE (incl. "Great White Heron")

* THE HERON --Theodore Roethke (U.S.)
      "The heron stands in water where the swamp"

* A POEM FOR THE BLUE HERON --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "Now the blue heron"

* AZTLAN: THE PLACE OF THE HERON --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "Grey on blue, omen-bird, the heron"

* HERONS IN WINTER IN THE FROZEN MARSH --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "All winter"

* SOME HERONS --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "A blue preacher"

* WINGS --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "I saw the heron"

* BLUE HERON STONE --Polly Brown (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "Because I could not bring back"
        (--truly a wonderful treatment . . .)

* from RETURNING FROM THE ENEMY --Joy Harjo (U.S. [Native American])
      "The elegant white heron on Kualoa Beach . . . ."

* AM I BLUE --Dave Ruslander (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "There's a rookery."

* BLUE FISHERMEN --Dave Ruslander (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "I watch blue fishermen wade in the James"

* GREAT BLUE CINQUAINS --Dave Ruslander (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "Heron fish"

* SNAPSHOT --Dave Ruslander (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "We paddle into Okefenokee,"
 

HERON, WESTERN REEF-

* WAITING FOR E. GULARIS --Linda Pastan (U.S.)
      "Exile"
 

HUMMINGBIRD        [pictured: Calliope Hummingbird]

* HUMMINGBIRD --Raymond Carver (U.S.)
      "Suppose I say _summer_,"

* HUMMINGBIRD --Michael R. Collings (U.S.)  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "whisk of brown not even breath enough,"
 

HUMMINGBIRD, RUBY-THROATED    {see also "HUMMINGBIRD," above}

* "A ROUTE OF EVANESCENCE" --Emily Dickinson (U.S.)

* HUMMINGBIRDS --Robert Cording (U.S.)
      "I don't know when I lost"
 

JAY, BLUE        [photo: TCG]

* from O JAY! --George Parsons Lathrop (U.S.)
      "O jay--"
        (--This fellow had obviously never heard all of the Blue Jay's sometimes quite "melodious" repertoire.)

* BLUE JAY --Robert Francis (U.S.)
      "So bandit-eyed, so undovelike a bird"
        (--tour de force of tension and contrast)

* "CRAZY JAY BLUE)" --e. e. cummings (U.S.)
 

JUNCO, DARK-EYED        [photo: TCG]

* FEEDING THE BIRDS --Robert Cording (U.S.)
      "I wanted to do something"
        (--Bird-hawk near a feeder: the war continues. . . .)

* BIRD POEM II --Tom Gannon (U.S. [Native American])  *EXCLUSIVE*
      "a junco must be a quiet one"
 

JUNGLEFOWL, RED (Domestic Fowl)

* from AN EVENING WALK --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Sweetly ferocious, round his native walks,"

* WRITTEN IN MARCH --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "The Cock is crowing"

* from THE PRELUDE --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Behold the Parent Hen amid her Brood,"

* DEPRESSION BEFORE SPRING --Wallace Stevens (U.S.)
      "The cock crows"
 

KESTREL, COMMON (Eurasian ~)

* THE WINDHOVER --Gerard Manley Hopkins (Gr. Brit.)
      "I caught this morning morning's minion, king-"
        (--from a small falcon to Christ)
 

KINGBIRD, EASTERN        [photo: TCG]

* from THE TYRANT FLY-CATCHER, OR KING BIRD --Alexander Wilson (U.S.)
      "Kill not thy friend, who thy whole harvest shields"

* "FOR ANY RUFFIAN OF THE SKY" --e. e. cummings (U.S.)
 

KINGFISHER, BELTED

* THE KINGFISHER --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "The kingfisher rises out of the black wave"
 

KINGFISHER, COMMON (Eurasian ~)

* THE KINGFISHER --W. H. Davies (Gr. Brit.)
      "It was the Rainbow gave thee birth"
 

KITE, RED

* "THE SAILING PUDDOCK SWEEPS ABOUT FOR PREY" --John Clare (Gr. Brit.)
 

KOOKABURRA        [pictured: Laughing Kookaburra]

* THE KOOKABURRAS --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "In every heart there is a coward and a procrastinator."
        (--perhaps a bird-lover's greatest dilemma & nightmare)
 

LINNET, EURASIAN

* THE TABLES TURNED --William Wordsworth (Gr. Brit.)
      "Up! up! my Friend, and quit your books"
        (--W.'s philosophy of "Nature" in a nutshell)
 

LOON, COMMON

* MY LOVE HAS DEPARTED --traditional (Chippewa)
      "A loon"

* THE LOON ON OAK-HEAD POND --Mary Oliver (U.S.)
      "cries for three days, in the gray mist."
 

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


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* -=TO THE TOP

* -=TO THE SPECIES INDEX

* -=EXIT to COVER PAGE/CREDITS

* -=NETIZEN NOTES (info on  *EXCLUSIVE* poem authors)


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