Whimsy with a Stunned Tanager
I study a Scarlet Tanager as she collides
with my plate glass window. Constantly
she gives up,
sweeps away,
then returns. Thunk,
on the glass & that same
sudden impact at the end
with no learning. Always she
bounces
back & cluelessly
returns.
I imagine what she sees
through the glass—
piles of paperbacks
stack of mismatched saucers
half-cup of V-8 with lime
open jar of Kalamata olives
Everyone but me has left
for the day but the tanager
keeps reappearing. Thunk.
What does she want?
Single violet in Coke-bottle vase
coffee with cream in a cracked mug,
poetry book fanned out on the footstool,
or me on my day off in my spangled
pajamas & fluffy slippers? That has to be it!
She wants my sparkles & cozy covered toes.
13 thoughts on "Whimsy with a Stunned Tanager"
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love:
“Single violet in Coke-bottle vase
coffee with cream in a cracked mug,
poetry book fanned out on the footstool,”
and of course she wants:
“my sparkles & cozy covered toes.”
Hey,
I can understand, your sparkles and cozy toes are very tempting 😉 love the title and the non punctuated stacks. Nice! and more shaping than usual…..I think Mr Cummings has been whispering in your ear. I see evidence.
Love ya lots.
the spacing or shaping is used effectively
Beautiful whimsy on a Wednesday morning. It feels like I have been in your poem, down to “the cracked mug and poetry book fanned out on the footstool.” The scarlet tanager is persistent, perhaps a persistence we all could use.
the great conversational tone
of trying to figure out nature’s
inexplicable ways
It’s a beautiful poem, Linda, your minute descriptions of the room and yourself, and the way you put yourself in the Tanager’s place, deciding at last what it wants. (Needs?)
This is lovely, Linda -taking a moment of connection, reflecting and having fun with it, too.
there definitely is a eerie ee feel here.
Loved the images and connection with the tanager.
Appreciate Thunk and Bounce of this beautiful delicate creature / the delicacy of what she sees through the glass.
The lines
“that same
sudden impact at the end
with no learning.”
work so well.
Love the whimsy of this poem, and your use of repetition. And what intriguing lists of what the tanager might see and be drawn to inside your home. Love everything about this poem.
I love how you turn our perception by imagining theirs “I imagine what she sees/through the glass—”