An exquisite cup, less than two inches across, of felted plant, fern or dandelion-seed down, covered so perfectly with moss and lichens and fastened with spider webs as to appear a mere protuberance on the limb, and lined with a layer of the finest down.
from Birds of America, 1936 – Garden City Publishing Company, Inc.
Our separate lives coincided, and all my self-absorbed anxiety vanished in that one fugitive moment, when a bird in the sky on its way somewhere else sent a glance across the divide and stitched me back into a world where both of us have equal billing.
from Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald, 2020
fuzzy bees and spikey petals
blue feathers on the forest floor
yawns and naps and cold, sweet tea
seashells in a garden
right now: is it that everything matters, or is it that nothing matters?
in the blue light of dawn, the snow fell silently on branches,
the crows called to one another
and to me–
after watching them from the window with warm coffee in my hands and hopefulness in my heart,
the pup and i joined their play, like restless children after a long sickness, the cold and the drifting snow saturating us with reckless abandon
fly away my friend
sometimes it’s not so much what is lost,
as what can be found
i asked her, “if you were a bird, which bird would you be?”
and she answered so close to my soul:
“a raven.”
a vulture came to visit my chimney–
she spread her wings and ruffled her feathers,
and we stared at her in complete reverence
she listens to the crow’s call,
and it’s like coming home
spanishwoods 