Pray for wayward doves heading out west.
For the single parent trying to do what's best.
Did anyone ever pray for those
with yellow stars sewn to sunken chests.
Predators simply see goodness as softness.
Something to be prodded, poked and diddled with.
Nibbled away 'til it becomes a black hole of mayhem and mischief.
Gift the young a firm and gentle hand.
The wisdom of age, how to engage
and the guts to debride out the bad.
Teach them the value of things
how to earn respect void of demand.
Keep them tight to the caring wing
until they can discern nightmare from dream
or a greasy, red beaked buzzard
from a silver songbird stream.
songbirds in flight
over waves of colour
roadside bluebells
AP: Honorable Mention 2022
I picked up a smile off the floor,
The smile someone had discarded as they walked out of the door.
The smile didn't fit me, it gave me a lopsided grin,
So I just let it slip and I looked miserable again.
Time just stands still,
I feel shaky and I feel ill.
Of all of the sounds I have heard,
The worst was the songs of the songbirds, because they sang all of the wrong words.
The world may continue to spin,
But for me time had stood still within.
For that moment when you said goodbye,
My heart shattered and I died!
May we be blessed to acknowledge all the wonders in our life
that have, for us, thus far accrued…
and to begin each day with a word of thanks…
and thoughts of gratitude.
Today I’m thankful for songbirds
I love these natural artist with their beaks and feathers and wings…
who…whether or not they know the words
are not afraid to sing…
Joy, breathless joy, sings to the robin, spring
Coloring hearts and heavens in wonder
Delighting souls with dazzling hues to bring
Raining light through lives who love the thunder
Despite miracles and peace, the flowers
Spring’s breath silences the glistening kiss
Winter’s echoes evoke pulsing showers
Darkening the dreams – spring isn’t all bliss
Just beyond snow, drizzling over prayers
Thick, murky earth offers dreadful mud baths
Groundhogs whistle while attending affairs
Known by those souls who travel down dirt paths
As we listen to soft cries of songbirds
Spring’s music feels like it’s singing backwards
Spring Is Not All Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Michelle Faulkner
January 30, 2023
in the light of dawn
hearts awake to crooning birds
chortling with new songs
NEWNESS senryu Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Beata Agustin
January 29, 2022
The city songbirds sing melodies shorter and faster
shorter and faster, shorter and faster.
Their singing is annoyingly high-pitched,
A squeak, a peep, shrill, abrupt.
Their country cousins do not recognize their language
Singing more slowly, their melodies are relaxed and easy
Their songs are pretty, a tribute to butterflies.
A lilting lovely lullaby beautified up.
The songbirds are plentiful where I live in the middle of oaks
I had four birdfeeders, but white tail deer slammed into them
Until they broke into bits, for they were plastic and did not survive
As they were being deer-bashed against the trunk of these oaks.
To discourage the deer, I bought new metal bird feeders.
It brings in up to eight cardinals, and a blue jay daily.
Wrens, robins, sparrows, and wood peckers arrive before nine.
Rat-a-tat sound on my oak bark; I enjoy watching their heads bob.
My forest is full of tweets, peeps, whistles, coos, and caws
There is a huge the influx of crows, which I also welcome
Playful squirrels are fun to watch, but their fingers are too deft
Daily they unscrew the tops of my bird feeders, laughing at me.
Allowing all of the bird feed to land on the ground, in a clump.
Bottoms of feeders roll into driveway, so I have to drive around them.
A plethora of activity, a menagerie of lively animals including rabbits.
Sassy squirrels chastise me when I come out; thinking it is their yard.
Solomon’s secretive solemn sassy sensuous servants and songbirds
Solicited serious Somalian solutions simultaneously with South African,
Southeast Asian, South Dakota, and South America. Squiffy, squirmy
Spiny specialized swordfish sent spiraling soon soared with sticky,
Silly starfish wearing stiletto heels. Surfboarders supposedly stepped
Over stormy streams to strip submarginal substances from slippery surfaces.
Sadly some suspected subterfuge.
A banjo on her knee
A phrase that makes me smile
I have never seen this myself
But I have played a tambourine
Not in church like two of the regulars,
But in my house, and outside, in my forest.
It makes worship ever jazzier,
In both a church and the woods.
Brings congregation and songbirds alive,
Competition on.
So inspiring and with such great admiration
I marvel at the caged bird as it sings
I’ve concluded that is how the bird must fly
Having been orphaned from the use of it’s wings
Spring entices songbirds to sing,
sing sweet songs that celebrate Spring.
Flowers soak up April showers,
showers resurrect dead flowers.
Bees pollinate blossoming trees;
trees secrete nectar for the bees.
Green new blades of grass can be seen,
seen in fields of shimmering green.
Breezes, whose sensation pleases;
pleases leaves, tickled by breezes.
Clear, blue, cloudless mornings appear,
appear when the weather is clear.
IT’S SPRING THE SONGBIRDS DO SING--
Oh, perching birds Passeriformes on branches sit Passeriformes;
Singing unto me a songs mimetic merrily in vocalization;
Territorial repertoire attracting mating calls characters;
A Chirp Whistles and Beeps Tweet-Tweets cries in formations;
Nightingales and mockingbirds attracts mates or hold territory;
Variety of many oscine songs thrashers and catbirds allegory;
Blue Jays, Mockingbirds kiss and flap their little wings;
The song in this clade signals sexual intentions race;
Sexual selection among songbirds is highly based;
And in Backyard marrying and dancing they do sing;
Alas! Tis the sounds and coming of spring, all the songbirds do sing;
Songbirds Poetry Contest
Rhyme poetry form only.
Sponsored by: Tania Kitchin
To lose our songbirds would be so tragic,
for their tunes hold a special magic.
And nature’s music unburdens the heart,
providing ebbing souls with a jumpstart.
The robin's chirp heralds the melting snow,
as the goldfinch serenades the meadow.
And in the spring, flocks of chickadees sing,
nesting near houses to rear their offspring.
Blue jays and nuthatches tweet from the trees
as woodpeckers rat-a-tat-tap with ease.
And crimson cardinals tweak overhead,
while tufted titmouse whistles are widespread.
(Rhyme)
2/16/2019
A song bird they are not yet they are on the list
Peck, Peck, Peck and Peck, Peck, Peck
While straining my neck to watch them
They suck, suck, suck the sap out of a tree
Occasionally finding an insect to eat
It is my belief the insects run out of the tree
This noise must be killing their tiny ears
Peck, Peck, Peck and Peck, Peck, Peck
suck, suck, suck then slurp he goes up then
Down the throat of this pecking woodpecker
Poor little bug he never had a chance
With this woodpecker pecking and sucking up sap
Contest Name: Songbirds
Sponsored by: Tania Kitchin
Date Created: 02/14/2019
Judged N/A
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