Birds

My Mother Would Be a Falconress by Robert Duncan My mother would be a falconress,

A Bird in Hand by Amber Flora Thomas I've memorized its heart pounding into my thumb

Tender Buttons [Chicken] by Gertrude Stein Pheasant and chicken, chicken is a peculiar third

A Bird came down the Walk (328) by Emily Dickinson A Bird came down the Walk

Leda, After the Swan by Carl Phillips Perhaps, / in the exaggerated grace

The Eagle by Lord Alfred Tennyson He clasps the crag with crooked hands

In Flight by Jennifer K. Sweeney The Himalayan legend says

Leda and the Swan by W. B. Yeats A sudden blow: the great wings beating still

Three Moves by John Logan Three moves in sixth months and I remain

Hardware Sparrows by R. T. Smith Out for a deadbolt, light bulbs

Interlude by Edith Sitwell Amid this hot green glowing gloom

Evening Hawk by Robert Penn Warren From plane of light to plane, wings dipping through

Gulls by William Carlos Williams My townspeople, beyond in the great world

Birds Again by Jim Harrison A secret came a week ago though I already

In the Memphis Airport by Timothy Steele Above the concourse, from a beam

Littlefoot, 19, [This is the bird hour] by Charles Wright This is the bird hour, peony blossoms falling bigger than wren hearts

Birds Appearing In A Dream by Michael Collier One had feathers like a blood-streaked koi

The Blue by David Baker heron is gray, not blue, but great enough

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary

The Parakeets by Alberto Blanco They talk all day

Darwin's Finches by Deborah Digges My mother always called it a nest

To a Waterfowl by William Cullen Bryant Whither, 'midst falling dew

If the Owl Calls Again by John Haines

I am Like a Desert Owl, an Owl Among the Ruins by Noelle Kocot The alpha You. The omega You

The Scarlet Ibis, Section VII by Susan Hahn Once, I got lost

Hope is the thing with feathers (254) by Emily Dickinson Hope is the thing with feathers

Birdcall by Alicia Suskin Ostriker Tuwee, calls a bird near the house

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Wallace Stevens Among twenty snowy mountains,

The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy I leant upon a coppice gate

Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins Caught this morning morning's minion, king-

Last Night I Dreamed of Chickens by Jack Prelutsky Last night I dreamed of chickens,

The Heron by Linda Hogan I am always watching

The Starlings by Jesper Svenbro Late one afternoon in October

Home to Roost by Kay Ryan The chickens

To a Skylark by Percy Bysshe Shelley Hail to thee, blithe Spirit

White Stork by Michael Waters Such jazzy arrhythmia

Hummingbird by Elaine Terranova What with foresight and dancing

Let Birds by Linda Gregg Eight deer on the slope

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge It is an ancient mariner

Poet as Immortal Bird by Ron Padgett A second ago my heart thump went

Sympathy by Paul Laurence Dunbar I know what the caged bird feels, alas!

The Yellow Bittern (An Bunnan Bui) by Cathal Bui Mac Giolla Gunna The yellow bittern that never broke out

Red-Legged Kittiwake by Emily Wilson Native it seems to no part

Small Study by Emily Wilson Sparrows swiveling the feeder

A Peacock in Spring by Joyelle McSweeney Makes derangéd love

Black bird, red wing by Nickole Brown So this is where the last year

Song of the Owl by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The owl

Albatross in Co. Antrim by Robin Robertson The men would sometimes try to catch one

Dispatches from Devereux Slough by Mark Jarman Highwayman of the air, coal-headed, darting

The Nightingale by Sir Philip Sidney The nightingale, as soon as April bringeth

Wild Swans by Edna St. Vincent Millay I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over

Ground Birds in Open Country by Stanley Plumly They fly up in front of you so suddenly

Rocket Fantastic [excerpt] by Gabrielle Calvocoressi He's really beautiful.

The Sparrow by Gerald Stern Here’s a common sparrow, a bit of a schnorrer