During the month of April, sitting on the deck in my backyard, I frequently noticed two different birds noisily claiming their territory and looking for love: the woodpecker (still not sure which type, but I’m hoping it’s a yellow bellied sapsucker) and the male black-capped chickadee. I recorded their sounds and used them as inspiration for poems:
1
Woodpecker/Sara Lynne Puotinen
April’s anthem
Brbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbrbr
Claiming territory
Drumming for love
Echoing Excavating
Foraging
Gutter gutting
Hole inhabiting no headache having
In possession of indestructible
Jack-hammering jaws
Knock knock knock knocking up to 20 times per second
Loudly looting larvae
Methodically mining maples–
Neighborhood nuisance
Or
Poet of the peck?
Quick
Repeated
Striker of
Tree trunks, telephone poles
Unstoppable
Vibrator
Wood wasting worm wanter
Xylotomous
Yellow bellied sap sucking
Zealot of the rat a tat tat
2
Calling Phoebe/ Sara Lynne Puotinen
Hello? Hello.
Absent, empty. Hiding inside.
Let’s do nothing—slow down,
down size. Repent, remake,
rethink, reprise. Break out.
Break up. Destroy. Cut ties.
Hello? Hello? Hello? Listen.
Breathe deep. Be wise. Uncoil, unwind.
Loosen tight jaws.
Relax tired eyes.
Sink in. Shut down.
Hello? Good-bye.