[New-Poetry] Six Tree Sparrows

[Anny Ballardini]

Whatever the format, I like this poem.

On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 4:01 AM, Bill Morgan <wwmorgan at ilstu.edu> wrote:

> For the season, maybe. . . .
>
>
> Six Tree Sparrows
>
> Among the dozens of Juncos, six Tree Sparrows,
> low in the snow-crusted field, work their way westward
> through mixed grasses, calling discreetly to one another
> in calm, candid voices like so many small wooden flutes.
>
> In this late-afternoon work, each bird settles
> about two feet up on a slim, tall seed spike,
> Foxtail, I think, and rides it, bowing, down-
> tail and wings buzzing in quick bursts, to adjust for balance-
> then slides along toward the brown tip,
> pins the cluster to the snow and strips it, constantly
> narrating his progress to the others, who listen,
> feed, and reply.  This goes on, stem after stem, for half an hour.
> Then their little rusty caps, black breast spots, and white-
> barred wings rise up and disappear into darkening trees behind.
>
>     Theirs is a contented, un-self-conscious harvest song;
>     theirs a labor elegant, precise, perfectly fitted to itself.
>     One watching could almost believe in a peaceable god.
>
>                                        (12-10-08)
>
>                                                                --Bill
> Morgan
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing
star!
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