Monday, February 10, 2020

Monday Musing: Just-In-Time Poetry



Blackbirds fill the sky at Lake Anna State Park, Virginia


On Wednesday I will be turning 53 years old.

Although I have not spent the better part of my life out-of-doors, this poem arrived in a Writer's Almanac newsletter last week and was just what I needed to hear.


Blackbirds

by Julie Cadwallader Staub

I am 52 years old, and have spent

truly the better part

of my life out-of-doors

but yesterday I heard a new sound above my head

a rustling, ruffling quietness in the spring air

and when I turned my face upward

I saw a flock of blackbirds

rounding a curve I didn’t know was there

and the sound was simply all those wings,

all those feathers against air, against gravity

and such a beautiful winning:

the whole flock taking a long, wide turn

as if of one body and one mind.

How do they do that?

Read the ending HERE.



12 comments:

  1. Gorgeous poem, M.! Sometimes it feels like the words move together as they should. Happy almost birthday! xo

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  2. "but instead we live and move and have our being/here". Wishing it were all so. I love seeing our blackbirds cawing in the trees, have only seen them in flight once, but not a large group. Thanks, Michelle for this beauty on a Monday morning.

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  3. This poem is stunning. Have a wonderful birthday!

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  4. I can feel the sweep of those birds in your lines, and how it the poem simultaneously curves back in on itself and becomes more expansive. Thank you!

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  5. What a boost this is to read on a Monday evening in February rain.

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  6. Happy Birthday! We're nearly the same age...I follow in August. Somehow, I find this nice.

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  7. Oh, I love this poem! And I'm exactly 1 week older than you are! Have a wonderful birthday!

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  8. Thank you all for the pre-birthday wishes! I'm glad you love the poem as much as I do.

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  9. Wow. That's an amazing poem! Happy pre-birthday to you. Nice to know that you are young enough to be my daughter!!! Thanks for the poem.

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  10. I am so glad that I went back to read the Blackbird poem, Michelle. Happy pre-birthday greetings to you.I see I missed the post on Buffy's challenge so I will catch up with that.

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