Tag: nature

Blue jay, hi! Blue jay, ho!

Blue jay, hi! Blue jay, ho!
Springing from each angled bough,
  Fluttering aground,
    Pulled aloft like a puppet
  Back up to the browned
    Bower barely above it.
Blue jay high, blue jay low!

One goodbye, one hello;
Wondering time, watch its tow.
  See it standing still?
    On the first of diversions
  Seasons start to spill;
    Lead our lovely excursions
Blue jay, hi! Blue jay, ho!

Blue I sigh, feeling slow
And inert. How to go
  Where I want to be,
    (And where is that exactly?)
  More than merely me,
    Maybe. It depends on who's asking—
Then at once: blue jay, yo!

Every day marvels show
Beauty's spark flash in both
  Beings grandiose
    And the commonplace creatures;
  Perhaps I learn the most
    From these humblest of teachers.
I get high, I lay low.

You, my love, you are so
Blue, but know that although
  Sometimes we must lay 
    In the valleys and doldrums,
  Always comes the day.
    Who knows when we'll behold some
Blue jay high, blue jay low!

One of Many Things

I think what I adore about you most
is your compassion for creatures in need:
the softshell turtle caught in dirt you freed;
protecting the mother hens on the coast
of the pond from a rowdy drake engrossed
in his hormones; and when you took the lead
trapping and releasing to his green weeds
the little lizard found on our bedpost.

Spiders, moths, and even juvenile wasps,
you do what you can to bring them from harm.
Even when exhausted you don't exhaust
your kindness for helpless things. That's the charm
which draws us to your arms, especially
the one who needs you more than any: me.