Every Tuesday, the New York Times has a section devoted to science. When I opened the paper yesterday and saw this photo, I knew I had to write a poem about this enchanting little bird!

You can read an expanded version of this article here. This story was also featured in Esquire.

“Jewel of the Jungle”
(South Philippine Dwarf Kingfisher)

Hidden deep within a jungle
of the far-off Philippines
lives a bird so small and shy
she’s hardly ever seen.

Adorned in the colors of sunset,
streaked purple, orange, gold,
with bright black eyes that shine like night,
she’s a dazzling sight to behold.

Zipping, darting through the trees
finding insects for each meal,
she grabs them in her dagger-like bill,
then gulps them down with zeal.

Her jungle home is threatened
by our axes and our brawn.
Let’s stop this mad destruction
Before her habitat is gone.

Draft © Catherine Flynn, 2020

Other “News From the Natural World” poems:

April 5: Phantom of the Forest
April 4: To Build a Nest
April 3: Apple Cake
April 2: Specimen
April 1: Forest Snail

Yesterday, I contributed a line to the Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem. Find out which of my lines Tara Smith chose here, then follow the progress of this year’s “choose your own adventure” version of the poem at the links below.

1 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan

Today’s poem was inspired by the pileated woodpecker who was breakfasting at a stump in my yard this morning.

Phantom of the forest,
you swoop into a clearing
on silky black feathers,
white epaulets flashing on
broad wings.

You set to work at once,
drilling, gouging, chiseling
precise rectangles in
a soft, decaying stump.

Your noble head,
capped by a lick of flame,
bobs up and down.
You pause to swallow
termite, ant, or beetle,
savory and satisfying.

Full for now, you’re gone
in a sudden swirl of black
and white and red.
Phantom of the forest.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2020

Other “News From the Natural World” poems:

April 4: To Build a Nest
April 3: Apple Cake
April 2: Specimen
April 1: Forest Snail

Find links to more National Poetry Month Projects at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. Also, you can follow the progress of the Progressive poem at the links below:

1 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan

Today’s poem was inspired by a recent article in the New York Times, “Why Birds Are the World’s Best Engineers,” a post from the National Audubon Society, “What Nesting Materials Are Safe for Birds?” and this nest, which my boys found in our yard many years ago:

To Build a Nest

When spring arrives
and days grow warm,
Mother robin knows
it’s time to build her nest.

Searching woods and
fallow fields, she scavenges
dried twigs and vines
to build her sturdy nest.

Slowly, slowly, surely,
she presses tangled
scraps and stalks
into a cozy nest.

She daubs the rim
and fills small gaps
with bits of goopy mud
to reinforce her nest.

Inside the cup, a woven whirl
of soft dry grass will
cushion cyan blue eggs
that soon will fill her nest.

Draft, © Catherine Flynn, 2020

Other “News From the Natural World” poems:

April 3: Apple Cake
April 2: Specimen
April 1: Forest Snail

Find links to more National Poetry Month Projects at Jama’s Alphabet Soup. Also, you can follow the progress of the Progressive poem at the links below:

1 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem
3 Jone MacCulloch, deowriter
4 Liz Steinglass
5 Buffy Silverman
6 Kay McGriff at https://kaymcgriff.edublogs.org/
7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche
12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading
19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference
20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be
23 Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering
25 Amy at The Poem Farm
26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters
27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
28
29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces
30 Michelle Kogan

“Get curious. Go deep. Feel.
Explore.
Create new paths.”
Johanna Wright

It’s April 1st, the first day of National Poetry Month, the first full month of spring, and the first day of our first full month of quarantine. So it’s hard to say Happy 1st day of April as we ordinarily would. And yet, the blessing of our ability to connect through this amazing technology is something to be happy about. How lucky we are to have thousands and thousands of poems at our fingertips to read and savor and find comfort in.

Many poets of the Kidlitosphere undertake a poetry project each April. In the past I have joined in when I could, but haven’t ever committed to a project of my own before. And although figuring out how to teach online has a steep learning curve, I do have a bit more free time I normally would. So if not this year, when?

On a recent episode of the Ted Talk Radio Hour, Enrico Ramirez Ruiz, an astrophysicist who describes himself as a “stellar mortician,” explained that “we are all atomically connected, fundamentally, universally.” My aim is to focus on some element of the natural world and find those connections, and within them, find tolerance and understanding. Should be a snap, don’t you think? I have no idea where all this will lead, so thank you in advance for your patience. I’m sure there will be false starts and changes along the way, but isn’t that true of all adventures?

Today’s poem was inspired by “Lessons In Being Alone, From A Woodland Snail,” a recent episode of NPR’s podcast, “Short Wave.

Forest Snail

In the soft glow
of a quarter moon,
a solitary snails
glides through
the forest
on a trail of slime.

She finds a patch
of wild violets
and slowly munches
on fallen petals.

When she is full,
she withdraws
into the comfort
of her shell,
a ribboned reflection
of the moon above.

Draft © Catherine Flynn, 2020

If you’d like to read more, Jama Rattigan has generously devoted much time and energy to curate a page of links to many National Poetry Month projects.