Twilight tiptoes through curtained clover leaves
Cape starlings stanzaed thank mighty Lord
spindly legs shake on spritely evensong breeze
closing chirp reminding that day is just a chord
What achievements marked chanting hours
manifesting with helio hands and heedful head
paper, pencil, thoughts danced about in bower
patterned sensations twirled needle and thread
A silent hymn I sit awaiting bright sickle moon
indwelling spirit dissolving wispy wanton wishes
blossoms lotus, liberates mind a special boon
intentions iambic winking flimsy floral fetishes
Moment to moment tasks tangent complete
each twilight twins a masterful morrow sweet
__________________
Categories:
starlings, change, character, environment, extended
Form: Sonnet
Trees of powder,
Delicate and firm.
They conceal my feathers of frost.
I perch myself by all that glitters
All that warms, and all that flickers.
I perch myself by candlelight
Snug in my nest of yarn.
My dearest deer is lost today.
The other starlings fly away.
Drifting off, a state of slumber
Filling me with fear, but wonder.
My nest of yarn, it cradles me
Despondent, I've become.
My woollen retreat, it comforts me
But chilled air bites my bones.
Beyond me waltzing are deer and starlings.
The others, romancing, like dears and darlings.
These shards of ice are carving, carving
And I know I should be out there, dancing, bombarding.
Glaciers, ponds, shining, sparkling
So stunning, so sinister for one who's so wanting
But no. Instead, in my head, I've been trying
To rid my thoughts of these paths I'm embarking.
I wished to be there, filled by warmth and by sympathy,
And in return, I was gifted immunity.
So instead, I laid here. I filled up with wonder
Drifting, and lulling a state of slumber,
Despondent and desperate, melting candlelight;
Found dead when my deer galloped into my sight.
Categories:
starlings, angst, romance,
Form: Rhyme
Starlings fly in flocks
Anticipating others direction changes
Twisting and turning in precision
A dance where they are ultra-aware of their companions
Scientists say each is cognizant of seven neighbors at a time
Categories:
starlings, bird,
Form: Free verse
a chameleon bird
their colors change with seasons
pointed beak starlings
Categories:
starlings, bird,
Form: Haiku
Hear those darling starlings - a noisy bunch!
They’re singing their hearts out, Sweetheart.
They’ve taken over the storm-ridden tree.
So brilliantly clean, from beak to wings.
They chatter about the suspended weather.
Only the early morning riser hears their bobbery.
Oaks dripping, white sky, delightful tweets.
I could fly…I could fly - with no weight of pollen.
Hear those darling starlings - a noisy bunch!
They’re singing their hearts out, Sweetheart.
Categories:
starlings, bird,
Form: Verse
Murmuration of Starlings
On a sudden moment in the evening sky
A cloud that rises, swirls and swirls again
A murmeration of Starlings rise and fly,
Lift and fall to the open grassy plane.
As shifting patterns fold and turn
A cloud that rises, swirls and swirls again.
A myriad birds swoop and churn
In an instant to evolve and change
As shifting patterns fold and turn
As by an unknown voice to re-arrange
Fluid patterns created not by chance,
In an instant to evolve and change.
In primitive display they dance
Sweeping to the horizon then return,
Fluid patterns created not by chance.
Each bird by bird's place exchanged in turn
On a sudden moment in the evening sky
Sweeping to the horizon then return
A murmeration of Starlings rise and fly.
09/30/2022
Entered into 'A Flock of birds Poetry Contest'
by Julia Ward
Categories:
starlings, bird, flying,
Form: Terzanelle
Murmuration of starlings high. I’m high!
Low stars twinkling with wings. The trumpet’s call!
As winds of war, incline, in warm wind sigh,
the flock, a shock, sans enemies appall.
These friends do fascinate, heard like bombers,
like Japanese over unsuspecting
Pearl Harbor fight ~ these darling bird-balmers.
The nudge of melodic buzz, quite affecting.
Not of national consequence, abuzz
not with politicking but peace of soul -
remains of war pittance, the scrawling-t’was.
My awesome sight, this di’mond-bling of coal.
Mere humans offer crumbs ~ my heart flaps wings.
With murmurs high and low, communion springs.
Categories:
starlings, bird,
Form: Sonnet
They flow out of a pocket of sky,
a door in the air no one saw
until dark wings shower
our heads.
Their plumage a metallic sheen,
as if they were made in parts,
in some elvish workshop, their wings
hammered on an iron last.
No starling is a starling alone;
it is a thousand, any number
too fleet to count.
They land where they please.
See them strut like dinosaurs,
eyes as black as a total eclipse.
Owl, eagle, and hawk fear to draw near,
for look, the starling throng
has descended here.
Categories:
starlings, poetry,
Form: Free verse
After peppering a tower of light
the flight froths over.
A bloom of wings falling,
then,
the dark shower
turning as one.
Puddles of sky splash open
speckled by black flint heads.
Wings spume.
Better I don't know
if this dance is choreographed
or a grace
thrown from the very thing
that is flung.
Better a dazzled surmise.
I want only
to feel what those dark foils feel
as they carve out space,
then turn (seeking nothing),
into a spiraling carousel;
as a visual vowel of wonder.
Categories:
starlings, poetry,
Form: Free verse
Tuxedoed and sequinned
Sixty starlings sing in the driving rain
Facing where the sun should be
Each pinnacles atop a leaf-bare branch
Black popsicles upon October's tree
Leaf confetti blowing to the ground
As they loudly choir their symphony
Categories:
starlings, bird, nature,
Form: Rhyme
They flow out of a pocket of sky,
a door in the air no one saw
until dark wings shower
over our heads.
Their plumage has a metallic sheen,
as if they were made in parts,
in some elvish workshop, their wings
hammered on last.
Wings that talk to other wings,
for no starling is a starling alone;
it is ten thousand starling clones
welded into flocks of feathers.
They descend where they please.
a road, a lawn, a parking lot,
they descend, and where they land
that is their land, their acre of lordship.
See them strut like dinosaurs,
eyes as black as an eclipse.
See them stab the light, push it away
until all that litters the ground
is prey.
Owl, eagle and hawk fear to
draw near, for the flock is here,
and it will leave when it wants to.
We avoid the pecking mob,
hurry by, look away,
as another swarm of avian androids
stakes its claim upon the earth.
Categories:
starlings, poetry,
Form: Free verse
Waiting for the light to change
(A busy urban street),
I noticed quite a gathering
Not far from my two feet.
Upon a sewer grate I saw
Some starlings pecking ‘round
Although I didn’t even
See a crumb upon the ground.
Their beaks dipped down, oblivious
To passersby or wheels,
Intent on filling up on what,
To them, comprises meals.
A couple flew away, replaced
By new ones in a flash,
Not plentiful as pigeons but
On city streets, as brash.
*the original title of this poem was "grackles on a grate,"
but when i googled to confirm that the birds i saw were,
indeed, grackles, i discovered they were starlings.
poetic license only goes so far...
Categories:
starlings, bird,
Form: Rhyme
After peppering a tower of light
the flight froths over.
A bloom of wings falling,
then,
the dark shower
turning as one.
Puddles of sky splash open
speckled by black flint heads.
Wing flecks spume.
Better I don't know
if this dance is choreographed
or a grace
thrown from the very thing
that is flung.
Better a dazzled surmise.
I want only
to feel what those dark foils feel
as they carve out space,
then turn (seeking nothing),
into a spiraling carousel;
as a visual vowel of wonder.
Categories:
starlings, poetry,
Form: Free verse
A chattering of starlings...
perform their synchronized...
aerial acrobatics...
in the apricot sky
Date written: 06/23/2019
Categories:
starlings, beauty, bird, imagery, nature,
Form: Imagism
A flock of starlings flying, swirling around for the longest time, land in a cherry tree. Off they go again into the distance, out of sight. While snow is falling gently as they vanish into the distance.
Categories:
starlings, bird, nature, snow, spring,
Form: Prose
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