VALERIE WORTH POEMS ABOUT BIRDS

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Michelle at Today's Little Ditty for Roundup.

I am out adventuring today but wanted to leave you with some more Valerie Worth poems. What poet doesn't love birds?? For more Valerie, please see the left sidebar for other posts in this series, which I will continue through the summer.

heron

Only
Fools
Pursue
Their Prey.

Mine
Comes to
Me, while
I stand and
Reflect;

Quick silver
Visions
Swimming into
My glassy
Reverie,

Seized
By a mere
Nod of
My wise
Beak.

- Valerie Worth

The magic years of my childhood were spend in a ranch-style house in Folsom, LA, just across Lake Ponchartrain from New Orleans. Lots of herons in those boggy, coastal parts! I remember trips to the Audubon Zoo and lots of father-daughter dates to wonderful restaurants (that surely contributed to my foodie-love today!). Here's a picture of John James Audubon's Louisiana Heron (from BIRDS OF AMERICA).

crows

When the high
Snows lie worn
To rags along
The muddy furrows,

And the frozen
Sky frays, drooping
Gray and sodden
To the ground,

The sleek crows
Appear, flying
low across the
Threadbare meadow

To jeer at
Winter's ruin
With their jubilant
Thaw, thaw, thaw!

- Valerie Worth

One of my most favorite childhood books MRS. FRISBY AND THE RATS OF NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien includes Jeremy the crow. (This could explain why a current wip of mine includes a pet crow.)

robins

Look how
Last year's
leaves, faded
So gray
And brown,

Blunder
Along
like flimsy
Flightless
Birds,

Stumbling
Beak over
Tail
Before
The wind.

But no,
Wait:
Today
They right
Themselves,

And turn
To the
Stout slate
And ruddy
Rust

Of robins,
Running
On steady
Stems across
The ground.

- Valerie Worth

Robins compared to leaves! How wonderful! And here is a pic my sister took of a robin's nest in her yard.

pigeon

The pigeon shed
is hot, and smells
Of dust and corn;

Pigeon-voices
Bubble, wings scuffle
Above our heads;

We are allowed
To touch the throats
Of the young squabs:

The sink and shift
Like beanbags, heavy
With grain, and warm.

- Valerie Worth

All I can think of when I read this poem is Barbara O'Connor's wonderful book ON THE ROAD TO MR. MINEO'S, which features Sherman the one-legged pigeon. :)

sparrow

Nothing is less
Rare than
One dust-
Colored sparrow
In a driveway
Minding her own
Matters, pottering
Carelessly, finding
Seeds in the tire-
Flattened weeds:
But because
She can dare
To let us watch her
There, when all
The stately robins
Have fled
Scolding into
The air, she
is as good a bird
As anyone needs.

- Valerie Worth

I love the start of this poem... and isn't it a great reminder that even the commonplace things among us deserve recognition? Also, it reminds me of one of my favorite books of all time -- THE SPARROW by Mary Doria Russell. I have read this book several times and get something new out of it every time. LOVE!

Stay tuned...I will be back next week to share about my adventures!