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The New Bird

August 11, 2006

In spring I heard a new bird across the road. It was red-brown and easy to locate in the young leaves of a maple. I couldn’t figure out what it was, which was pretty thrilling.

Summer has now hidden the bird in leaves and I still haven’t made an I.D. The creek branch has gone dry. A week ago minnows roiled and smothered.

The bird calls. It calls from over my shoulder. In the yard I walk under the ash tree, battered by a nameless din.

by Bill Knight

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  1. zhoen
    August 11, 2006 at 7:43 pm

    Oh, Bill, you wonderful subversive.

  2. Bill
    August 12, 2006 at 1:32 pm

    Thanks so much Zhoen!

    Thanks Dave, Beth and Qarrtsiluni for the hall, stage, audience and microphone, not to mention rehearsal time and elocution tips. It’s been a blast!

  3. Dave
    August 12, 2006 at 4:04 pm

    Thanks for sending something in, Bill. I’m sorry we don’t seem to have many readers right now — everyone’s off on vacation, I think.

  4. Lori Witzel
    August 12, 2006 at 7:05 pm

    Bill, I love this little nugget of yours.

    Nameless din indeed.

    Delighted that Dave, Beth, and Q shared!

  5. Rachel
    August 14, 2006 at 8:40 am

    That last line is gorgeous. Wow.

  6. Peter
    August 16, 2006 at 11:36 pm

    Everything moves so well — the spring to the summer, the maple to the ash, your insistence to the bird’s.

  7. kasturi
    August 18, 2006 at 3:40 am

    love this poem, bill. gary and i just had a similar experience. it took us forever to find out that the visitor whose song we loved is a red-breasted nuthatch, a very common bird, one we’ve heard before, but just now discovered that we REALLY LOVE – and we had no idea what it was. Can never spot it.

    Its song can be heard at this link: http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i7280id.html

    Click on ‘Song’ – thanks again, bill

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