The January Birds
by Maurice Riordan
The birds in Nunhead Cemetery begin
Before I’ve flicked a switch, turned on the gas.
There must be some advantage to the light
I tell myself, viewing my slackened chin
Mirrored in the rain-dark window glass,
While from the graveyard’s trees, the birds begin.
An image from a dream survives the night,
Some dreck my head refuses to encompass.
There must be some advantage to the light.
You are you I mouth to my shadow skin,
Though you are me, assuming weight and mass —
While from the graveyard’s trees, the birds begin:
Thrush, blackbird, finch — then rooks take fright
At a skip-truck and protest, cawing en masse.
There must be some advantage to the light,
Or birds would need the gift of second sight
To sing Another year will come to pass!
The birds in Nunhead Cemetery begin,
There must be some advantage to the light.
End of the poem
15 random poems
- Robert Burns: This Is No My Ain Lassie:
- Love Sonnet XXIX poem – Zora Bernice May Cross poems
- Keepe On Your Maske (Version for his Mistress) by William Strode
- Sonet 48 by William Alexander
- Lover’s Gifts IV: She Is Near to My Heart by Rabindranath Tagore
- Jerusalem Delivered – Book 06 – part 02 by Torquato Tasso
- The Cat in the Kitchen by Robert Bly
- The Trial Of A Man by Sylvia Plath
- The Dawn Of Gods Sabbath
- Soil by Roger McGough
- The Lament Of The Old Nurse
- Зинаида Александрова – Карманный фонарик
- Beggars by William Wordsworth
- Robert Burns: The Trogger.: Heron Election Ballad, No. IV.
- Men Improve With The Years by William Butler Yeats
Some external links:
Duckduckgo.com – the alternative in the US
Quant.com – a search engine from France, and also an alternative, at least for Europe
Yandex – the Russian search engine (it’s probably the best search engine for image searches).
