{"id":5284,"date":"2016-10-07T09:03:11","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T16:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/?p=5284"},"modified":"2016-10-07T09:07:43","modified_gmt":"2016-10-07T16:07:43","slug":"lisel-mueller-why-i-need-the-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/07\/lisel-mueller-why-i-need-the-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisel Mueller – Why I Need the Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why I Need the Birds
\nby Lisel Mueller<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

When I hear them call
\nin the morning, before
\nI am quite awake,
\nmy bed is already traveling
\nthe daily rainbow,
\nthe arc toward evening;
\nand the birds, leading
\ntheir own discreet lives
\nof hunger and watchfulness,
\nare with me all the way,
\nalways a little ahead of me
\nin the long-practiced manner
\nof unobtrusive guides.<\/p>\n

By the time I arrive at evening,
\nthey have just settled down to rest;
\nalready invisible, they are turning
\ninto the dreamwork of trees;
\nand all of us together \u2014
\nmyself and the purple finches,
\nthe rusty blackbirds,
\nthe ruby cardinals,
\nand the white-throated sparrows
\nwith their liquid voices \u2014
\nride the dark curve of the earth
\ntoward daylight, which they announce
\nfrom their high lookouts
\nbefore dawn has quite broken for me.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a> \u2014 from Alive Together: New and Selected Poems<\/a>, by Lisel Mueller<\/font><\/p>\n


\/ Image by MariaWillhelm<\/a> \/<\/em><\/font><\/p>\n

This poem makes me think of my wife. She is always noticing the small encounters of the day and how they seem to draw our attention out of its patterns in order to whisper to us of what is coming up on our path.<\/p>\n

\u2026always a little ahead of me
\nin the long-practiced manner
\nof unobtrusive guides.<\/i><\/p>\n

Birds are a particular favorite of hers. Their song, sometimes sharp, sometimes melodic, calls out for attention. With their gift of flight, the way they perch high on treetops and lampposts, they are messengers, watchers, sentinels. And among their own kind, they are gossips too.<\/p>\n

My wife is always listening to what birds have to tell her.<\/p>\n

Lisel Mueller\u2019s poem especially evokes birdsong at those two liminal periods, dawn and dusk, when everything is changing, our reality is shifting, when the world is handed off between day and night.<\/p>\n

There is a tree outside our bedroom window. When we leave the windows open, we can hear the birds\u2019 first tentative calls in the gray light before dawn. But I especially like the communal, nestling chucks and soft chirps as they are settling themselves down among the branches in the early evening. At home within the descending dark, they become part of the fading branches and leaves until they are purely the voice of the slumbering tree itself\u2013<\/p>\n

already invisible, they are turning
\ninto the dreamwork of trees<\/i><\/p>\n

And the world quietly turns, carrying us all. From their high place, the birds see the coming dawn first. They call out to it, and call out to us to wake and witness and celebrate with them.<\/p>\n

.myself and the purple finches\u2026<\/p>\n

ride the dark curve of the earth
\ntoward daylight, which they announce
\nfrom their high lookouts
\nbefore dawn has quite broken for me.<\/i><\/p>\n

Have a beautiful day!<\/p>\n


\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/a>Recommended Books: Lisel Mueller<\/font><\/b><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/center>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Alive Together: New and Selected Poems<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nSecond Language: Poems<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nThe Need to Hold Still: Poems<\/a><\/small><\/td>\nDependencies: Poems<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/a><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n\n
\n\"Lisel<\/a>\n<\/td>\n\nLisel Mueller<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

US & Germany (1924 \u2013 )
\nSecular or Eclectic<\/a><\/a>
\n<\/a><\/a><\/em>\n<\/td>\n

<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

More poetry by Lisel Mueller<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why I Need the Birds by Lisel Mueller When I hear them call in the morning, before I am quite awake, my bed is already traveling the daily rainbow, the arc toward evening; and the birds, leading their own discreet lives of hunger and watchfulness, are with me all the way, always a little ahead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1485,1997],"class_list":["post-5284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","tag-birds","tag-lisel-mueller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5284"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5290,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5284\/revisions\/5290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry-chaikhana.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}