Long Tanager Poems

I.
Rennie Hauser gazed out of the window
as the stage slowly trundled down the road,
the sun beat hard on the towering peaks
that ran across northern Colorado.

She was on the way to see her father
in the small...

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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 have longed for you my love
as committed the tanager to sing
my yearn to hear your voice
as watercourses the mountains spring
 
My joy leaps like the springbok
at the thought of coming home
the beating heart within...

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If only I could shake off long rigorous winter;
and embrace secret hidden in the cool of spring.

Enlivened by nature; the twitter sound of the Scarlet Tanager,
its red-orange and black feathers, the flame of spring.

As the...

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Bloom or bouquet or bunch or bare brief buttonhole,
Fresh or full-blown or nosegay or fresh posy role;
Flowers blossom in saucy slimy silkiness,
Seek them to be the same, is senile silliness.

Red-necked Tanager cannot be Mandarin duck,
Let...

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A scarlet tanager sits primly on the rail
Of the new fence erected near the meadow,
He eyes me stroll as I take in every detail
The path to the woodland is rather narrow,

Infrequently used, it is rapidly...

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The meadow has come alive with sight and sound
As I go through the gate, I hear buzzing all around,
The bees are busy working on milkweed flower
Waist-high daylilies and coral honeysuckles tower,
Enticing a few hummingbirds into...

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Entertained by flickers on a screen, cosseted between giants. Suited with slicked-back raven hair, snow-white starched shirt, an innocent tie.

Mother smiles at his sky-blue eyes. Father pats his shoulder, “Good show!”
The nightingale, high in spirits....

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How beautiful the sounds, sights of nature

In the distance alarm call of a cuckoo,

beautiful sound of summer Tanager

Blackbirds hopping around getting in a stew,

Acrobatics of swallows, swifts, Martins,

Crows of the carrion, rooks, jackdaws, Raven

Cooing of...

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SPRING NOTES

          I don’t ask for the meaning of the song of a bird
     or the rising of the sun on a...

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If you want a treat, look up the most colorful birds
Ever made by God, and you will come up with the best.
Paradise tanager, red-bearded bee-eater, macaw. My word!
What a fantastic creature in and out of...

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Summer Nights in the South


Green fireflies blink in the quiet of night

and our sleeping old dog heaves a sigh.

Dreaming, she sprints through a youthful blue sky

chasing delicate clouds, cotton-white.



A red-sunset tanager* colors the warm air

from...

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Inside the forest's sea-of-green, 
Sits a hungry, bright-scarlet tanager.

Eating one caterpillar after another,
In minutes he gulps down thirty-five. 

Doing its part to help the forest,
Ridding the forest of harmful insects.

And over there in a huge...

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Mint leaf season vortex gilds sylvan glaze
vivid hue a scented purple ground mist
citrus brume float locus in dewdrop phase
cherry orchard fruit shoots hearthrob wish list

Gold grosbeak pecking ryegrass fare at dawn 
scarlet tanager an oak...

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Blue-green splashes as you pull into the sea cliff curve.
I stop to view nature's rainbows through a glass swerve.

Watch the sparkling waterfalls, trees, stars, and sky.
What is more dazzling than a natural wonder display?
 
Dance with...

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FILL-INS
An invitation for
the reader to use
imagination

Who?      What?
two fine ladies rest
neath a bamboo
umbrella
they talk of a
third?

Fishermen
small boat at anchor
two men mend her
tattered sail
weather      or old
age?

Pretty Song
on...

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I been tired of waiting and waiting i been melting.
It’s been almost an hour when it started raining
I can’t tell you how much I want a smelting
I need energy since an hour I have been...

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GARDEN

Two haiku after a painting by Russell Gordon

flowering dogwood
perched and pert, a tanager
harkens to the wind

flowering dogwood
perched and pert, just listening
scarlet tanager
………………………………..

this plaster statue
she’s naked, white and demure
looking at a rose

her round, yellow hat
casts a...

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