The January Birds
by Maurice Riordan
The birds in Nunhead Cemetery begin
Before I’ve flicked a switch, turned on the gas.
There must be some advantage to the light
I tell myself, viewing my slackened chin
Mirrored in the rain-dark window glass,
While from the graveyard’s trees, the birds begin.
An image from a dream survives the night,
Some dreck my head refuses to encompass.
There must be some advantage to the light.
You are you I mouth to my shadow skin,
Though you are me, assuming weight and mass —
While from the graveyard’s trees, the birds begin:
Thrush, blackbird, finch — then rooks take fright
At a skip-truck and protest, cawing en masse.
There must be some advantage to the light,
Or birds would need the gift of second sight
To sing Another year will come to pass!
The birds in Nunhead Cemetery begin,
There must be some advantage to the light.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- The Change
- The Mother by Patrick Pearse
- Concert Party by Siegfried Sassoon
- For Sidney Bechet by Philip Larkin
- Иннокентий Анненский – Из участковых монологов
- Ancient Music poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Complaint Of A Poet Manqué poem – Aldous Huxley poems | Poetry Monster
- Illusion of Time by Ndue Ukaj
- The Shadowy Waters: The Harp of Aengus by William Butler Yeats
- Bucolics by Sylvia Plath
- Corn A-Turnen Yollow by William Barnes
- The Human Tragedy ACT II poem – Alfred Austin
- Николай Языков – Послание к А. Н. Очкину (О, ты, с которым я, от юношеских лет)
- Song—O Tibbie, I hae seen the day by Robert Burns
- Baby’s Way by Rabindranath Tagore
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
