The RetroLounge Daily Poem Thread (Sat 11/29/2008)

[RetroLounge]

Contraries

You sit on the front steps in love
with the little birds, the finches
& sparrows fidgeting from leafy cover,
not that they need you
cheering them on to eat the seed
at the feeders hung just for them—
sunflower, millet, a white sock of thistle;
but when the hawk lowers its broad
red shoulders and sits, alone,
on the limb of the cherry tree,
after the little birds, seeing it coming,
have scattered like ifs and whens,

you pull for the hawk, admiring
its heft, the turn of its head,
not to mention the unblenched eyes,
its black-banded tail. How could you not
root for this brown serenity lifting off,
grudgeless and oblivious to grudge?
Now the finches & sparrows are back,
with two chickadees, all astir,
flitting their soft agitation.
Once again you fall
for the little birds, their flutter
of yeses quickening the air.

Susan Meyers

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Susan Meyers is the author of Keep and Give Away (University of South Carolina Press, 2006), winner of the SC Poetry Book Prize, the Brockman-Campbell Book Award, and the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Award for Poetry. Her work has appeared in The Southern Review, Crazyhorse, Tar River Poetry, Verse Daily, and other literary journals. Recent prizes include first place in the Yemassee and South Carolina Review poetry contests. She lives with her husband in the rural community of Givhans, South Carolina.

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:hi:

RL

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Good morning, my dear Retro!

Ah, this is lovely!

A glimpse into the rural life perhaps, where the wild birds live...

Thank you...

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

2. Good Morning!

:hi:

RL

[Chorophyll]

3. ...

Amazing how quiet things get when there's a hawk in the neighborhood. We've had one here once or twice and it was freaky. :hi:

[RetroLounge]

5. ...

thanks for the pics...

:hi:

RL

[Chorophyll]

7. You're welcome.

It was fun digging them up. Much better than getting any work done. :D

[Haole Girl]

4. Nice

After all, how could one "not root for this brown serenity lifting off,
grudgeless and oblivious to grudge?.."

[RetroLounge]

6. ...

:hi:

RL

[Tuesday Afternoon]

8. ifs and whens

scattering.

nice.

:hi:

[RetroLounge]

9. ...

:hi:

RL