Cedar Waxwings, October 26
Snow on sumacs and they whirl downDefining sleek
Velvet masks, paint-dipped tails
Porcelain, breathing.
Frost comes early or late
Sometimes it waits
and the mandevillas keep blooming
like Christmas in Jamaica.
This morning, too early,
a taint in the air
of greenery, dying
The same smell hurricanes leave.
The jessamine, translucent in death,
drops small blossoms.
They'd have scented the whole kitchen
Had I remembered to bring them in.
I crunch through icy grass
The souls of dying plants
Rise up around me.
Thank you, birds, for staying
though I have nothing to offer you
You seem content there, in the glowing birch
To look at me, looking at you.
the first poem vanished in a scheduled outage
which turns out to be a good thing
Second go is better--JZ
posted by Julie Zickefoose @ 8:05 PM
16 comments
16 Comments:
Awesome description, Julie. Beautiful photos. Just beautiful. Makes one want to take a walk on a crisp morning and breathe deeply, watching your breath rise.
Aren't waxwings some of the most regal, polite birds around?
I have them in mind when I bought all of our berry plants. Please come sample the goods!
Wow. Incredible. Another rockin' post, and a great start to a chilly Friday morning. Thank you!
They are such spectacular birds. So crisp and perfect looking. Thanks for sharing them and your poem.
The thirty waxwings who came yesterday must be reading the blog, because there are 175 out my studio window this morning, all wanting me to take their pictures. Actually, they're stripping the pokeberry, dogwoods, and the "dwarf" red Japanese barberry that is now bigger than our garage door and too prickly to prune. I can't believe I ever planted that thing. It fit in the palm of my hand in 1992. At this point we'd need a backhoe to dig it up.My word verification was vinipryi.Sounds fruity and appropriate.
I also think of Cedar Waxwings as porcelain birds.
I'm sitting at my desk at work trying not to tear up over your beautiful words.
Thanks for making my day better every day.
175 Cedar waxwings! I checked your website and could not find where to order them. With that many, you do box and ship them don't you?
One of these days The Swami will have to post some poetry on his blog. Trust me, it will have people liking yours even more than they already do.
Thank you so much for sharing the beautiful waxwing pictures. Yet another bird that I rarely see here but remember vividly in my Grandmother's back yard in Batavia.You have the uncanny ability to make so many happy with your posts, thank you for brightening my gray and gloomy day!
Dear Julie,
I love your poem and your pictures. Our waxwings should be showing up soon to eat holly berries, drink at our birdbaths, and give the resident mocker fits--but I've never seen 175 at once. Wow!
Did you know that you got quoted and "Letters From Eden" plugged in the Washington Post Thursday morning? Hooray. It was in the "Home" section, an article about box turtles called "Plodding Pals," and you got several paragraphs.
I cut out the article and will send it to you, if you want it.
I was reading along, and suddenly, there was your name. Hey, I know her!
How is your book doing? Do they let you know about sales figures periodically or what?
Sharon from Fredericksburg, VA
Dear Sharon,
I'm so happy about Adrian Higgins' article, and would love a hard copy. Thank you!
It can be accessed online at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/
content/article/2006/10/25/
AR2006102500351.html?
referrer=emailarticle
It's kind of a stealth review. You're reading along and all of a sudden there it is. Very cool.
The book is selling really well. I know at least the whole first printing of 10k is gone. That's about as specific as I can be. Anyone who wants to go to Amazon.com or Barnesandnoble.com and post a review, like the good Swami did, is welcome. Well, as long as you liked the book, that is.
Thanks for the kind words, everyone. See you Monday?
As this post was coming up on my screen, the photos looked like watercolours, at least until the pixels all filled in. I thought it was going to be about painting.
When you start filling orders for Cedar Waxwings, I will take a dozen. I finally had my first "yard" waxwings this summer, a small group appearing just across the road from my house, but I would LOVE to see a flock descend in the sumac bushes in the fall. They look so classy and proper, very neatly turned out.
Thanks for sharing with us,
~Kathi, whose verification word was "sxwkgx," which sounds like a sneeze
My dear friend..beautiful poem. You do have something to offer them.....you offer them your home and share their beauty with all of us. You saved one from certain death when I was there just a few weeks ago. Thank you for sharing the wonders of your life with all of us.
I'm so glad to see that you like your Cedar Waxwings too. I think they are so elegant with their sleek feathers, and black masks. I love when they are cavorting in the little falls above our small pond and their reds and yellows streaks flash while they bathe.
Dear Julie,
What a wonderful journey, I just finished 'Letters from Eden'. One complaint, the book isn't long enough, one request, please write another.
Sandy from AR
Love these birds. Finally saw two with the orange tail tips yesterday.
Dying to write Letters II. So many more stories to tell.However I need to earn some money first, as book writing, sad to say, makes for rotten cash flow. At one point during the year I was putting the book together I had to go around the house emptying all the bureau tops of their pocket change, and that pickle jar in the front closet of its pennies. I got a couple of trips to the grocery store out of it. True story. I'd like to think those days are behind me, but know that as long as I follow my heart, there will be many more ahead. We prefer our artists a little gaunt and hollow-eyed; they burn brighter that way.
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