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
- Ribbons & Pearls by Timothy Cole
- Sonnet 154: The little Love-god lying once asleep by William Shakespeare
- To Be Carved On A Stone At Thoor Ballylee by William Butler Yeats
- Haiku: March by Monty Gilmer
- Владимир Степанов – Облако-овечка
- In Spring, Santa Barbara by Sara Teasdale
- Георгий Иванов – Так тихо гаснул этот день
- A Hillside Thaw by Robert Frost
- Николай Карамзин – Из мелодрамы Петр Великий (Жил был в свете добрый царь)
- For A Fatherless Son by Sylvia Plath
- Владимир Маяковский – Дожмем! В России буржуазия побеждена… (РОСТА №841)
- William Strode – William Strode
- A child said, What is the grass by Walt Whitman
- Ольга Берггольц – Знаю, чем меня пленила
- Momma Welfare Roll by Maya Angelou
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).
