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
- For the Men at the Front by John Oxenham
- Villanelle: Oscar Victorius by T. Wignesan
- Ghazal to Pera Belle by Serkan Engin
- The Giants In Treädes by William Barnes
- This Dust was Once the Man. by Walt Whitman
- O Wondrous Ecstatic Eyes – Chashmay Mastay poem – Amir Khusro poems | Poems and Poetry
- Watching Unto God In The Night Season (2) by William Cowper
- Sparkles from The Wheel. by Walt Whitman
- Untitled XII by Yunus Emre
- The Fault of It poem – Ezra Pound poems
- Robert Burns: Saw Ye My Dear, My Philly:
- Юрий Левитанский – Кто-то так уже писал
- Whispers of Immortality by T. S. Eliot
- Михаил Кузмин – Я знаю вас не понаслышке
- Grandmother’s Teaching poem – Alfred Austin
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).
