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In migration time
swans over the house—
his great body in pain
refusing to go
Poems on the topic: migration
Poems on the topic “migration” on Poets.by.
Birds of Passage
north has lost its allure
to the great unsettling
mist lingers later in the day
storms smell like the tropics
the sun cedes ever more
to thieving ravens
and shimmering on a far shore
that magnetic field
traveling so light
even the songs stay behind
but home has grown
beyond elaboration
mountains don brighter plumage
berries ferment like sunsets
first a mellow burn
then the whole of the night sky
Migrants
The field sparrow is back—
that rising trill spilling
from a small, pink beak.
A yellow-bellied sapsucker
taps a ring of wells all around
the bole of a hickory.
You nap on the porch,
ears open to the creek and other
migrant tongues.
Pulling the Last Shade
Pulling the last shade
of night heading south ,
a million starlings.
Migration Shadows
Migration shadows
as I stand staring
from my window.
Snow Geese
When geese venture forth
they have an innate sense of direction.
Soft wings straddle stars
stroking snow flaked skies with certainty.
There is a heartbeat
coursing the air with life, a determination
to survive, to reach
the sun, to shrug off winter's baleful eye.
That is why they scythe
moon slivered nights with screams, leaving
black northern skies,
and crystal lakes, for rum soaked seas.
In spring, a beckoning
beneath the skin, to answer the call
of the great white north
the instinct to return, to be reborn.
Falltime
Gold of a ripe oat straw, gold of a southwest moon,
Canada thistle blue and flimmering larkspur blue,
Tomatoes shining in the October sun with red hearts,
Shining five and six in a row on a wooden fence.
Why do you keep wishes on your faces all day long,
Wishes like women with half-forgotten lovers going to
new cities?
What is there for you in the birds, the birds, the birds,
crying down on the north wind in September, acres
of birds spotting the air going south?
Is there something finished? And some new beginning
on the way?
Describe a feeling — we’ll find a poem
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