At once a voice arose among
    The bleak twigs overhead
In a full-hearted evensong
    Of joy illimited;
An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small,
    In blast-beruffled plume,
Had chosen thus to fling his soul
    Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings
    Of such ecstatic sound
Was written on terrestrial things
    Afar or nigh around,
That I could think there trembled through
    His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
    And I was unaware.

-From The Darkling Thrush -Thomas Hardy

-from Wikipedia

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide
to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember
that on that day,
at that hour,
I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

But
if each day,
each hour,
you feel that you are destined for me
with implacable sweetness,
if each day a flower
climbs up to your lips to seek me,
ah my love, ah my own,
in me all that fire is repeated,
in me nothing is extinguished or forgotten,
my love feeds on your love, beloved,
and as long as you live it will be in your arms
without leaving mine.


-If You Forget Me- Pablo Neruda

bridge

A sad day for Whooping Cranes, 18 known losses-potentially more...
The ones I saw may have been affected by the tornadoes last night.

The day is bitter~sweet, good news on a grant and I am in a show next weekend. The gallery owner was excited about my painting. So it is a mixed bag, because I hate to think something has happened to those magnificent birds I was lucky enough to spend time with. They are so few in number, and bad luck could mean the end of them. What a tragedy that would be, they are just so utterly magical.

Unflinching eye to which I have hands to grab at hawks and eagles without trepidation-by no means a wallflower-iron core-sharp taloned foot-gold eye-hooked beak-sliver tongue
I miss it more then air-in this so conventional-lost nerve-flighted soul

how can I be patient enough?

The immortal cranes call, their cries sound from afar, their thoughts
circle upward into distant skies. Below, on the autumn rivers, stands
a man, above him the bright moon. The man wanders aimless, trailing after
the endless Milky Way. The wind blows past him. I, too, thinks the man, would like to be utterly free.

-Jiang Yi Ning

I want to live where soul meets body
And let the sun wrap its arms around me
And bathe my skin in water cool and cleansing
And feel, feel what its like to be new

Cause in my head there’s a greyhound station
Where I send my thoughts to far off destinations
So they may have a chance of finding a place
where they’re far more suited than here

I cannot guess what we'll discover
We turn the dirt with our palms cupped like shovels
But I know our filthy hands can wash one another’s
And not one speck will remain

I do believe it’s true
That there are roads left in both of our shoes
If the silence takes you
Then I hope it takes me too
So blue eyes I hold you near
Cause you’re the only song I want to hear
A melody softly soaring through my atmosphere

Where soul meets body

-Soul Meets Body Death Cab Cutie

looks so free, I love how white pelicans fly...

. . . for me there lies,
Within the lights and shadows of your eyes,
The only beauty that is never old.

   -James Weldon Johnson

lucky ducky

Everglades Snail Kite

What greatly worries me:

the extinction of birds

my little cares are really not much in comparison to this kind of speculation

Elegy for a Doe

She looked at me
two great brown eyes
swinging her ears forward
she hunched and rocked heaving
every inch gained slid back
the snow dark from the weight.

I am not done yet
two dead legs under me
the hill is not so far
a road hangs heavy
my eyes fill.

She is tired
the fight leaves in bitter cold
her last run is outward
on the echo of a gunshot.

--by the Corbyhawk, written to remember the deer that had been hit but not killed. I made the call to end her suffering but did not have the strength to see it happen. As for the other I decided that it is not so bad a thing and I will just be content in my little daydream. It helps me work, my hope that he is watching.