Earthbound,
grounded —
the sea stretched and foaming before us,
slope-shouldered dunes whispering
at our backs —
We stood side by side,
sand tugging toes,
necks craning
to lift squinting vision up,
to see —
To witness
myth and fancy
spread over the wide blue expanse of sky,
riding subtle, fingering breezes
at the ends of tethered lines.
— C.Birde
Arrow-tall Hickory pelts the earth with its potential offspring. In childhood, I spent many a day beneath just such a tree as squirrel or chipmunk or blue jay; peeling back thick, green, four-petaled husks till my fingernails were tarnished; cracking open the small taupe-brown orbs within; picking out and eating the sweet nutflesh.
Southward,
we chased Autumn,
through burnished, narrowed light
beneath an escort of sprung-coil,
gloss-winged birds.
We pursued Her flame-leafed trail —
a coy wink,
a sly step —
until we lost Her among
gnarled live-oaks
and regiments
of soaring,
sentinel pines.
— C.Birde
Let the leaves collect
at my feet
in their rustling,
scuttling
tumble.
May my skies froth
with rivers
of eddying,
harbinger
blackbirds.
Fill my cup with Autumn —
but allow
Spring to reside
in my heart;
Summer,
in my bones.
–C.Birde
The Four Sisters twine limbs
against the elemental sky
and weave roots
to part Earth
with slow and steady certainty.
They hold the memory of years,
of an age,
in their woody flesh,
girdled within their torsos
in concentric rings.
They do not complain,
nor pass judgment,
nor beg favor
as I pass between their knees,
beneath their shadow lattice.
Yet always,
they return my greeting in
their rustling,
multi-leafed chorus.
–C.Birde
“Autumn Reservoir” — C.Birde, 10/16/15
Slowly, the Reservoir refills,
its shoreline diminishing,
as a narrow ribbon of water twists
and dashes around worn-smooth stones
ordinarily submerged.
–C.Birde
I walked, this morning, with Autumn,
Her chill hand in mine,
Her breath cool on my cheek.
She wore as mantle the muted blue sky
flocked with dove-gray cloud.
We marked our steps in asters,
goldenrod, and foamy white snakeroot.
“Fret not,” she said,
“over Winter’s approach.”
Her voice rustled in sunset hues.
“Heed the crickets’ chant —
“still time still time still time.
“Harvest the cooling air.
“Gather the stretched-long rays
“of enduring sun,
“And abide.”
In downward drift around us,
the cider leaves collected,
And all the forest
breathed.
— C.Birde
Chipmunks share
the morning’s news in
ringing, staccato notes;
And Jays fall
from trees in
blue-blazed truth,
hunting among acorn-hued leaves
for those derbied nuts.
The Electron finds a
white-laced length of shed
snake skin,
too delicate to lift
with slender twig.
The light is diffuse, gentle.
The air is cool and sweet.
Absorb this
’til it imbues thought
and act
and gesture.
Carry it out and into
the World beyond these
wooded doors.
— C.Birde
“Autumn Tourne”, C.Birde Oct. 2015
I think I am in withdrawal — no more two-, three-, four-plus-hour hikes through landscape that transforms and surprises with shift of wind and sunlight’s exposure. No more sandwiches and chocolate atop weathered, bald-capped mountains; nor the chitter and scold of red squirrels, otherwise silent as breath. The Canine Electron, I am certain, misses the adventure, as well.
But today — this moment, right here, right now — is lovely. A great depth of Autumn sky sprawls above our small, familiar patch of Earth. Together, we have put some miles beneath our eager feet.
My heart’s beats —
moss-covered and fern-filled,
deeply wooded;
clasped in pink granite and
ultramarine;
bound by star-pierced night —
I have brought the Island
home with me.
— C.Birde
