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
- In Imitation of Cowley : The Garden poem – Alexander Pope
- Late, by Myself by Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi
- Aubade by Philip Larkin
- Annus Memorabilis : Written in Commemoration of His Majesty’s Happy Recovery by William Cowper
- Robert Burns: Another [Epigram On The Said Occasion… On A Henpecked Country Squire]:
- Epigram on Rough Roads by Robert Burns
- Шекспир – Чтобы стихи, рожденные когда-то – Сонет 38
- Огюст Барбье – Корреджо
- Владимир Маяковский – Стихотворение это
- Second Epistle to J. Lapraik by Robert Burns
- O What Is That Sound by W H Auden
- Владимир Маяковский – Польша
- Epitaph on Wm. Graham, Esq., of Mossknowe by Robert Burns
- On Teaching The Young by Yvor Winters
- Upon A House Shaken By The Land Agitation 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).
