nature poetry

*“Reimagined Cormorant” by Martin Haake*

Today, a little avian appreciation. Bask in the blueness!

BLUE
by Sidney Wade

The great blue
song of the earth
is sung in all
the best venues—
treetop, marsh,
desert, shore—
and on this spring
day in the wetlands
where, under
a late sun,
we stand alone
and in love
with each other
and the passing day
we watch a cormorant
whose eye is ringed
in blue diamonds,
a shimmering lure,
and we love this blue
and this dark bird
and this deepening sky
that pinks and hums
in the west, and then

the bird opens his beak
and flutters his throat
and the late
afternoon light
illuminates
the inside tissue
of his mouth
which is as blue
as his ocular jewelry,
as blue as the bluest
ocean, as blue
as the sky in all
its depth, as blue
as the back of the small
and determined beetle
who struggles to roll
his enormous dung ball
in his own breeding bid
to enchant another
small blue miracle.

~ Copyright © 2016 by Sidney Wade. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, May 18, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets.

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WHAT IS THE POND DOING? by Diana Hendry (for Ruairidh, who asked) Wobbling like a wobbly jelly Being a bucket for the rain Sending flash-backs to the sun Cheeking the sky Giving the moon a bath Letting swans, ducks and winter leaves ride on its back Licking the lollipop reeds Pretending to be soup for the wind to stir Growing stinky skunk cabbages Drawing wheels and circles then rubbing them out Plopping slopping slurping spinning Turning the weeping willows happily upside down Dreaming of running away to sea Hiding under a starry blanket of dark What is the pond doing? Ponding. Responding.