My week has been filled with birds. (If you’re a frequent reader, you might be asking yourself, “What else is new?”) At the beginning of the week, I made may way to a new Audubon Center near my home for an early morning bird walk. Then I finished Mozart’s Starling (which I wrote about here). I really loved this book. Haupt ends by deftly weaving the threads of her starling Carmen, Mozart, and artists of every stripe into a reflection on the nature of creativity. “And what is this wild summons?” Haupt asks. “To listen with changed ears and sing back what we hear.”
Inspired by these words, here is a tanka filled with the sounds from my week.
As the last stars fade,
robins and cardinals sense
dawn’s approaching warmth.
Trills and cheeps float from treetops
chasing away night’s shadows.
© Catherine Flynn, 2017
Reading to the Core 
Lovely…..what a way to end a week. It feels fresh and full of a new morning coming.
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Such a soothing tanka, Catherine – just lovely.
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How beautifully you have shown the dawn, Catherine. I love rising so early and listening to the robins calling to each other. I have to wait for those cardinals when I visit my brother in a couple of weeks! They are not here in Colorado.
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This poem reminds me of my morning walks listening to bird song. Beautiful.
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I’ve been noticing that the early morning birdsongs are losing the intensity of spring mating/territory defending. At some point in the late fall, my early morning walks will be silent, and in the same way I can’t properly remember in August what a numb-with-cold face really feels like, I won’t then be able to remember their songs.
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How gorgeous you make the dawn chorus that starts even before the light reaches us. It makes me remember how it sounds outdoors, hearing birdsong through canvas, under rustling trees.
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Seems like everyone’s including birds in their poetry this week. Love it!
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Love those sounds in the early, early hours!
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I love birds, and a bird walk sounds delightful, as is your song-filled tanka. I especially liked your last line and the Auduban painting,
“chasing away night’s shadows.” Thanks Catherine.
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