Long Chickadees Poems

1

Sunrise, late winter
skunk smell
turkey flock
playful otter, too.

The white heron
a great blue,
white phase,
in the abandoned beaver pond.

Purple clematis
its long-awned achenes
in globose heads
spidery, fiery, extravagant fruit!

To identify or classify
birds by
the complexity or beauty
of their songs.

And so
what is...

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Only the dead have seen the end of the war. - George Santayana

Even when I sit at my window,
Watching birds peck the sunflower seeds,
Feeling blessed and a little sentimental,
Feathered wings, rejoicing over their luxury…

Even then,...

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I was a sophisticated, world class traveler, like merry wind in green trees.
I had seen hottest deserts and rain forests, where songs will never cease.

I had traveled by planes and by trains, by luxury ship,...

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Carrying a sleeping baby.
Cleaning after a successful party.

Camping beyond mountains more mountains.
Playing trumpet on the streets of New York City.

Eating although the food supply is deeply compromised.
Flying with Democrats and Republicans, evangelicals and atheists.

Flying like...

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June 11, 2016

I sit on the balcony of a research station in Georgian Bay, disconnected from the world.
The vast waters open up before me, with the rocky beach expanding off to each side,
A blue sky...

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I find waking up a challenging, time consuming chore 
As I rather enjoy cavorting with kings, queens and wanton whores. 

I admit I’m drawn to royalty and “Riff-raff” now and then
Even Jesus used to hang...

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Footsteps in the Snow


In the cold grip of winter’s night it is the season of nature’s rest. All is not at peace in this time of rest for the forest. All does not sleep.

The call...

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The dark green forests cover the earth with  pine , straight and tall , all in a line
Fragrant and soft ,quiet and clean
Gentle giants grow in all sizes, sacred and true, waiting to be...

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Autumn grieves for summer,
Whispering her anguish to the morning,
Sighing sorrow, a heart torn, 
Sorrow born from the dying leaves,
Rustling in the winds who sing…

Melancholy, darkness rising, trembling,
With colors of summer’s demise, 
Her passing, the collapse...

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The feeders were empty, dejected, forlorn.
The lady who filled them had suddenly gone.
Her time here now ended, she wakened no more:
Gone from her gardens, departed her door.
 
This little much mattered to birds on the...

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10/8/22


On it, worth the risk to me
You must be kidding me
Why live to be
In nothing but misery?

Just like that instantly
Another epiphany
Seeing it all vividly

Never was into me
But she took the L, so I'mma call her...

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The squeak of rubber is the crunch of snow
Under the steps of my winter boots
As I walk through the Below Zero

And when the day breaks
The air itself is as white as if
One is looking through...

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"Showers and sunshine slowly bring the deepening verdure o'er the earth; To put their foliage out, the woods are slack, And one by one the singing-birds come back."
       ...

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I like my winters "neat" ...

But they all come "on the rocks" here
So a day will come when palms will dominate my view
Instead of evergreen trees and pine cones and juniper bushes
(Though I do love...

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In the landscape 
of melancholy, 
where arctic 
heartbeats linger, 
I long for withered 
willows to blossom 
like speckled 
diamond petals, 
while your crystalline 
silhouette strolls 
through tangled tunnels 
of my weathered mind.

And I question 
the...

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Bird watchers say
 there are birds that return in spring to play
build a nest, raise their young
 but as seasons change there are always some
who stay the winter, forage for seeds
 familiar ones that cling...

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A pretty oak  sits outside my window pane in the snow and in the rain 
Covered with life, outside the balcony fifty steps away 
Decorating the tree with  flashes of red, black, grey,...

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FELICITY
Free Verse

When I met you, I thought I just met an ordinary lass
As I talked to you, I started to mesmerize
I was enthralled by the questions you asked
And the way you answered, I was indeed...

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Spring returns with vigor while a rigor clings my stilted throat 
Stings my eyes to bleed. There in the garden, 
Within a pale and vibrant blend of words, 
I see so little language left for...

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Before the sun is fully up
Beside the window with my cup
I watch them come on silent wings
Those wild, beautiful, little things.
Each day they visit more and more
The feeder by my cabin door

Small clans of tiny...

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The veil of twilight lifts, 
unmasking 
a beautiful spring daybreak. 
Out came the sun rays
bursting through the clouds, 
shimmering like gloss
of silk and satin; 
sneaking through the window panes.
I feel the heat sensation 
massaging my...

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Once again
   the strength to rise early, escapes in fleeting suns.
The muscles
   ache and flinch in pain as the humidity of the day breathes heavy.
The breaths
   are an anguished...

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Rise slowly from eastward, O western setting sun! Blaze
                     Anew!  Get up, swell the...

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If I have the time, I’ll wait eons, to greet you in scarlet dawn
As you marvel its vermillion garb embossing marigold arc
Emanating golden sparks, piercing hazy contours of dark
While gilded ripples glisten pond, where floats...

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sporting a colorful chemise
a camera and a valise
temptations so easily tease
roaming as free as honeybees
tourists hear beckonings as pleas
and capture beauty with much ease

tiny things no bigger than peas
or vast expanse of deep blue seas
weeping...

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