Bird Lady

She was the crack in the priceless vase

the sum total of all that went before her
minus anyone yet to come and she was only
looking for a  place to lay her tired  head
with a  pitched roof that didn't leak and a
dog that didn't howl when the moon was full

 

The thickening of her waist came about
two years after the dust settled white

on the slant top desk with the hidden
compartment she hunches over

as if she's dedicated her life to writing
something important enough to share

 

No one told her that egrets croak like frogs
or that a loon calls for his mate long after
her death or that still water is swirling
with tiny organisms and baby whirlpools

directly below the translucent surface

so she arranges seeds on her palm
hoping that a bird swoops down and lands
on her outstretched hand without making a sound

 

When she is finished with the birds she will
straighten her back as best she can and head

back home thinking of what to say

and how to best describe nature as she sees it
on her frequent walks through the deep woods

where robins pull worms from the mud at the water's
edge and  foundling sparrow fall from their nests

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[Ken Simm.]

As with Marie I relate so much to this. A large part of my life has been birds. I have been a falconer and I have painted them for ever. I have been blessed with so many wonderful sights and pleasures that have been part of the natural world and these have coloured every aspect of all of my art.
For those reasons and more, I too do not see this as lonely. I also see it as solitude and not in a sad way but in a wonderous way.
This writing is itself wonderous in its composition and construction not just in its subject matter. I am honestly astounded.

[LJW]

Thank you so much. This piece is autobiographic. I an indeed the bird lady. Growing up in New England with avid bird watching artist parents, I too was surrounded with nature. Birds are my favorite. I could, and do, watch them for hours.

[Larry Dyson]

@ Ken and LJW...I so agree about the solitude being enjoyed and relished.. I love the recreation of the feelings and emotions are so intense as to make it as if I were there..bravo!

[LJW]

Thank you for your kind words.

[W.k.kortas]

This is a wonderful (and as the prior reviewer noted, "stunning" is not too strong a word) picture of a life...maybe not gone wrong, exactly, but a life with a couple wrong turns, one or two occasions where the main road bore off to the right and she plain missed it. The first stanza sets it up nicely-- the idea of a priceless vase with the crack, a sum total with a minus tacked on. There is the notion of one trying to write the tale of life without living it, thus the first five lines of the second stanza. It's a top-shelf conceit, and the piece doesn't blow it all to hell by beating around the head and shoulders with the message; the control is admirable, professional. As good as anything you've written, which is saying something.

[LJW]

Oh Wkk....how I miss your presence here. You were my favorite writer here.

Perhaps one day you will miss the merriment and return...

[Emily B]

I wish there was a magic phone. We could call and he would come back :)

[LJW]

Amen sister.

[Penulis Kecil]

This is stunning, absolutely stunning. Like someone else already mentioned, there's a definite feeling of loneliness, or rather of aloneness; but I feel as though the proxmity of nature for her actually enhances it.

It's as though she's incomplete and knows it, and there's a definite sense of reality to nature for her; she doesn't want to go home and write that nature is all beautiful and wonderful, she wants to show it the way she sees it, the way it properly is; with that sense of aloneness and bird-eat-worm sort of reality.

[LJW]

Thank you.

[bob, small b. aka invs]

i like this very much. it's like being introduced to an interesting character. writers and lovers of nature will surely identify with this lady and your writing, as always, is superb.

[LJW]

And thank you Bob, for being a loyal follower of my writing for such a long time.

[Gone]

I love everything about this write. What I like most is the sense of utter lonliness dispersed slightly by the proximity of nature. The sense that although she does not understand much about it, she regards nature as a friend. This poem really connected with something from my own past and for that I am grateful. Bittersweet memories from my teenage years but memories I cherish just the same.

[LJW]

Thank you so much.

[roarke]

soft, subtle, like folding origami. We are the sum of what we have discovered, whether it's everything or just a few. The important part is the reverence and bliss one receives from the walk back home.

[LJW]

Beautiful response, Roarke.