four whooping cranes  white discs in the distance

whites of the eyes floating in an inlet

of river;  they had flown off, then re-

turned; four floating on an inlet

of water, too far for detail, too far even

with binoculars;  four white floating ovals

in a channel, and behind them   in a line,

in a long extended line in their gray

coats, each one, wearing its feathers, one

behind the the other, brushed,      in its dignity,

grey,  along the bank of the inlet of the river,

against the bank, at the edge of the forest,

which was a pine forest,  in their gray

overcoats, each, the one more delicate than the next,

one connected to, separate from, as

in a chain of, synaptic, thought, relation-

ship, gray, grey, brushed, like a hat,

like a hat, like a hat with a hat-band, brushed,

floating, feeding, in a line, stretched and

stretching, a hundred, two hundred, more

were the sand hill cranes

 

 

 

and to the right

and forefront of the eye-whites

whooping cranes

the blackbirds in their

persistence

floating

continuum

 

 

for rafael

 

 

 

there are a handful of robins

and a handful of starlings

in the hackberry and in the oak

this morning practicing their diphthongs

 

 

 

 

 

 

in winter in the hackberry

the robins gather their thoughts

which are mainly of fruit

and nest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

in the winter the robins

are visible in the hackberry tree      (against the sky)

their orange-red breasts exposed

thought-to-thought

 

 

 

 

 

 

i walk below along (the) pavement

my own orange-red parenthesis

flat foot      steady      inspired

___   ___

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the birds in the morning

continue to fly to branch

to perch, to fly

to branch         to perch

to fly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

like the knots

of the bamboo

the blue among

the dark brick red

dark blue to light

blue upward

 

 

 

 

 

 

the winter sky makes evident

the thought that lands and pauses

on a branch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bird landed at end of

distant   branch against sky

was that moment

at lower part of

heart

 

 

 

a bird landed amidst a net work of branches

a bird landed in the center of a network

of branches a bird landed in the center

of my third eye amidst a net work of

branches a bird landed amidst a network

of branches on the third day of the new year

 

 

 

 

 

a bird is thought

that lands on branch

in early winter – plump

or slender – slight or

dense – it stays and

rests on the thin branch

for a considered pause

or touches down for

quick association

on the crown of street

and streets and sounds

                               adda

gadda     dada