Tag: birdsong

bird dreams

7 March 2026 / Editor

Poetry by Jon Raimon

Waking to bird talk,
I wonder.

Did they wing into
my dreams?

Gather twigs and spring fluff to nest in
my wishes?

I stumble up, feel the fool,
yet sense they are on my side

with hoots and jests
coos and kindness.

They gossip and advise,
each note thrilled with care.

Thank you for swooping
into my hopes.

Know I will, clumsy and earthbound
as I am, try to always listen to

your love calls and unexpected tittering,
your joyous racket and grand laments.

Listen skywards, as you warble your way
into daymares and night longings

a feather touch so light we don’t even know how it heals
our wounds, soothes our grief

a clarion caw, warnings to feel, to
protect these skylands we breathe in

together,
a revelry we must heed and celebrate.

Jon Raimon teaches writing in Ithaca, New York. He writes along with his students, focusing on poetry and short fiction. His inspirations include his children and students, everything within, and all kinds of rocks.

Shutters

12 February 2026 / Editor

Poetry by Michael David Roberts

All but children and birds care
to live their lives with an end game.

We adults prefer to walk narrow paths
usually leading to destinations.

But something always happens—
a major distraction in which

the locks are changed or the knobs
don’t turn, even just a little bit, all

unexpectedly, nothing predictable,
as it should be. And you don’t even know

if you are locked in or out. Sometimes
it is hard to truly be adult about this.

Often in the mornings, when
the dew has soaked the grass

and all the houses have their windows
shuttered, I can hear birds, all in synch,

like a room full of children who
have just discovered a small surprise.

Michael David Roberts is a retired community college professor who currently lives in Tumwater, Washington and spends much of his time walking through nearby forests. He has been published in The Comstock Review, Chelsea, Slipstream, Versedaily.com, and others. His book, The Particulars of Being, was published in 2004.

Photo by Vijayalakshmi Nidugondi on Unsplash

Voices

1 September 2025 / Editor

Poetry by Marsha Howland

A solo artist sings in the
woods close by. Four notes,
a pause, then two and six
(three times). For several
minutes this bird loudly
performs. Then comes a
soft echo from deeper in
the woods. They sing a
duet, back and forth, his
voice growing more faint
each time he flies further
into the thickening trees.
By stages, song and
response move closer and
closer, until it almost seems
there is one voice, one song,
one small triumph in the
eternal progressions of
life. The nature of things:
You find your voice and, if
blessed, find another.

Marsha Howland‘s poems have been published in The Moon issue of The Black and White series, the American Journal of Nursing, and Waves (AROHO). As a senior at Wellesley, Marsha won the college’s Academy of American Poets prize. She had the privilege of studying with poets David Ferry and Frank Bidart.

Photo by Vincent van Zalinge on Unsplash

At 6 AM

1 August 2025 / Editor

Poetry by Arthur Ginsberg

birdsong
pours through the open window.

I cannot know
if the suet I hung yesterday
fills them with joy,

or if, the handsome male in the maple
is wooing the female
in the condominium next door,

or if, it is simply
dawn that fills them with happiness—
nuthatch and goldfinch

perched on the feeder,
orchard bees swooning,
deep in trumpets of columbine,

the way I am lifted
out of darkness by a Mozart aria
to a place of rapture.

All these avian melodies
soaring from the throats
of feathered angels

that make a man want to fly.

Arthur Ginsberg is a neurologist and poet. He earned an MFA at Pacific University and has published five books of poetry. He teaches a course titled, “Brain and the Healing Power of Poetry” in the honors program at the University of Washington.

Tag: birdsong

bird dreams

Shutters

Voices

At 6 AM

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