Today from Susan Taylor Brown whom I interviewed on WEDNESDAY.
From Susan:This is a poem I wrote about my experience of having a hummingbird build a nest in my backyard, lay two eggs, and then, have the eggs stolen from the nest just before they were due to hatch. The experience took place across a few short weeks and absolutely broke my heart.
13 Ways of Looking at a Hummingbird
1
wings whirl
in place
my face
smiles
swivels
tiny dancer
chirps
cheeps
chitters
hello
2
greengold glitters glides
lands atop the waterfalls
shimmy shakes
a water dance
3
spider silk
blades of grass
lichen
moss
one gray hair
two red threads
building blocks
a mini mansion
4
picture pose
turn left
now right
chin up
hold still
I’ll keep my distance
5
in out
out in
tall wall
soft floor
ready wait
wait some more
egg one
egg two
soon
each morning
each evening
I check
just in case
6
the plum tree a
perfect preening place
ruffled nest feathers
bugs picked flicked
feathers smoothed
stretch once
stretch again
bask in the sun
before babies come
7
stormy days
stormy nights
quivery
shivery
forgetting generations
that came before
I worry
flashlight in hand
8
she disappears deep
within the overgrown honeysuckle
seeking bugs
protein power
for motherhood
alone
I measure
one nest
one half a walnut shell
one egg
one jellybean
one miracle
waiting to happen
9
my days equal
part
inspection
observation
research
photographs
my days equal
bliss
10
camera ready
I await her homecoming
hidden only slightly behind the fence
fifteen minutes
two hundred photographs
my mini model
is a star
11
morning comes
empty
no mama snug atop her nest
no tiny eggs safe and sound
no babies waiting
to say hello world
sometime between
the darkness and dawn
disaster
12
overcast and gray
rain soon
but I am stubborn
searching beneath the bushes
until I find evidence
until I find a tiny white shell
until it hits me
miracles don’t always come true
13
crying
crying
crying
camera clicks
shot after shot after shot
most will be out of focus
unable to capture the pain I feel
at all the days that should have been ahead
suddenly suspended beside me
close enough to almost touch
no chirp
no cheep
no chitter
she hovers there
ten seconds maybe more
just long enough
to say goodbye
—Susan Taylor Brown, all rights reserved
Thank you, Susan. I so love hummingbirds and feel your loss with Lucy and her nest.
Poetry Friday is at A Year of Reading.
School’s out today. Happy Reading.
MsMac
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This story of Susan’s Lily always tugs at my heart, no matter how many times I hear/read it or in what form.
Sad, but how it goes in nature…the other story perhaps being of another animal bringing home much needed food for her young…but still to us. A sad story well told; each segment indeed a poem on it’s own. Thanks for sharing!
Susan’s poem is so beautiful and yet captures the essence of grief and loss. Thanks for sharing here.
It’s such a sweet story to share, and aren’t we glad that Susan told it! The pictures are gorgeous too, & add to the sorrow. Thank you!
Thank you all for reading and for the kind words. Jone, thanks for having me.
This is wonderful. I love the way the poem is about the hummingbird, but it’s also about the looking, and the lookER is such a vivid presence all the way through. I love “mini model.”