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
- Mutation by William Cullen Bryant
- Вера Павлова – Я дождевой червь
- absent-mindedness; or I Dream of Spices by Raj Arumugam
- Ballade Of The Dead Cities poem – Andrew Lang poems
- Mulholland’s Contract by Rudyard Kipling
- The Temple of Fame poem – Alexander Pope
- Анатолий Жигулин – Где теперь ты, рыжая
- Teachers Day special
- A Tale of Elsinore by William Topaz McGonagall
- Омар Хайям – Любовь роковая беда
- I Come Home Wanting To Touch Everyone by Stephen Dunn
- Mr. Mistoffelees by T. S. Eliot
- Robert Burns: On Seeing Mrs. Kemble In Yarico:
- Вера Полозкова – Или, к примеру, стоял какой-нибудь
- On A Miser, 2 (From The Greek) by William Cowper
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).
