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
- O What Is That Sound by W H Auden
- Вера Павлова – Слово держу осторожно
- Маяковский – Послушайте: Стих Владимира Маяковского – Читать текст стихотворения на Poetry Monster
- Obscurity, the Essay and Poems on Obscurity by Abraham Cowley
- Владимир Британишский – На конференции молодых геофизиков
- Laughing Rose by William Henry Davies
- Elegy on Willie Nicol’s Mare by Robert Burns
- Song—She’s Fair and Fause by Robert Burns
- Unforgotten
- On An Old Woman (From The Greek) by William Cowper
- Crusaders by William Wordsworth
- Impromptu on Mrs. Riddell’s Birthday by Robert Burns
- Николай Заболоцкий – Зеленый луч
- The Welcome
- Николай Гумилев – Мадагаскар
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).
