Wednesday, February 26, 2025

Herons Visit Mary Oliver

Herons, ducks, and geese
rise in morning splendor
from a gold and violet dawn,
the sun giving them due notice
to migrate to the next best place
they are unaware of.

They will follow

the poetry of sky,

already sensing the pen

or pencil on the pad

 

Wingtips dip unpolished silver water,

ascend to the great flapping and waving

of flight known only to an author

not in visible sight.

But oh, in time, in time.

 

In time

they land on her shoulders, knees,

on her hands and arms

and in her poems,

where they become

ink, cursive and swooping,

dipping on the off-white page

to describe the feathered meaning

of fowl.

 

They speak of sedge and reeds

and mud and the ether

that binds it all together as one.

The still words are moving,

the meaning set and yet undone

with the flapping of a page.

 

I wish I could live,

write, and see as one of these,

the little ones who form

a kingdom in search of a scribe

with words that may

or may not rhyme

depending on what she sees

at any particular time.


~William Hammett



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