Monday, May 28, 2007

What else is everywhere like birds

A few days ago I decided that there are too many birds in poems.

I live with a bird.

There is yet another set of nesting finches in the roof of our balcony (the third set this spring).

There are little sparrows that peck at the window of my study.

Yesterday morning there was a blue jay hovering over my bicycle, more startled than territorial, fortunately.

Flocks of migrating pelicans fly over my head every time I go for a walk or run.

A someone I know is trying to leave the country. And, of course, many people are trying to come to this country.

I am not a vegetarian and San Diego is cold.

When you begin to notice birds, you notice that birds are everywhere. What else is everywhere?

sex
dust
mythology
wall-to-wall carpet
miscommunication
nostalgia
pollen
isolation

3 comments:

Jessica Smith said...

but there are good reasons to write about birds. birds are great. and everyone writes about birds differently. i think birds are a good test case for looking at poems by different authors. you see how each poet uses words and sees the world differently by seeing how they write about birds.

pollen. i don't know any poems about pollen.

K. Lorraine Graham said...

I have several references to hives in my recent poems, but I'm only now beginning to talk about dust and pollen.

I think you're right that birds can be a good test case for looking at different poems by different authors, but we could also say that about how people write about death, love, the seasons, and their parents. I can't say away from birds as a source for subject matter and diction (diction especially), they're too much a direct part of my life (like family).

O birds. Death. Ambivalence!

Jessica Smith said...

i am writing about flowers and fruits, so i am being particularly original right now ;-)

bees. bees are interesting. something about hexadimensional space? and dancing.