Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

poem-spring? March 28, 2021

Filed under: poem,Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 2:15 pm
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Geese call
mournful fly past.
The year is reborn
Why does my heart
hear autumn’s sorrow?

 

poem- W September 14, 2016

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 10:32 am
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Geese trying a new vocabulary

fly in W formation

I wonder

what will winter wind

waft or wallop  webbed wonders

wandering west and south along waterways?

 

poem-optimism March 1, 2016

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 9:41 am
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Each year a goose takes roost in

the osprey nest platform above the mill.

I suppose penthouse accommodations entice.

The view is lovely there,

and surely she feels superior to her kin

nesting waterfront (though their

recreational opportunities are greater).

Each year, after a month of goose occupancy,

the ospreys return.

I do not know the depth of the tragedy.

Do the evicted geese simply suffer homelessness,

or do they endure the grief of infanticide, as well?

Sometimes our lofty aspirations

are our undoing.

Our hubris is our hamartia,

but each year, in early spring, there’s a goose

in the osprey nest.

.

.

.

.

Remember your Shakespeare lessons?  Hamartia is the ‘fatal flaw’ of your personality that leads to your downfall (most commonly in literary tragedies).  Hubris is an excess of pride.

 

poem- wild geese November 8, 2015

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 3:58 pm
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In half a V,

a line of five geese flies to the lake.

Moments later,

another half, line of eight

flies from the lake.

I’m waiting for the perfect V of twenty

or thirty birds, but times have changed

and half the flock

must choose to take the bus

these days, or perhaps, to walk.

 

poem- real estate April 8, 2014

Filed under: Poetry,video — Shawn L. Bird @ 10:28 am
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The Canada Geese

have taken up penthouse accommodations

in the osprey platforms.

Two lady geese on two platforms

watch the cars pass on the highway

enjoying the view,

liking this nest.

They’re distant neighbours

proud to be moving on up.

I wonder how that will go

when the ospreys return?

.

.

(Ospreys are raptor type birds that like to live beside lakes and rivers where they are avid fishers, are partial to building their huge nests on the T-bars of power poles.  The hydro company and/or local naturalists, build platforms beside tempting poles to relocate them to safer premises.  The ospreys will return to these nesting sites year after year.  Apparently, the geese like them, as well!  This video is from the other side of the country, back in 2011)

 

 
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