Some Trees by John Ashbery

Author:John Ashbery [Ashbery, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781480459168
Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media

The Orioles

What time the orioles came flying

Back to the homes, over the silvery dikes and seas,

The sad spring melted at a leap,

The shining clouds came over the hills to meet them.

The old house guards its memories; the birds

Stream over colored snow in summer

Or back into the magic rising sun in winter.

They cluster at the feeding station, and rags of song

Greet the neighbors. “Was that your voice?”

And in spring the mad caroling continues long after daylight

As each builds his hanging nest

Of pliant twigs and the softest moss and grasses.

But one morning you get up and the vermilion-colored

Messenger is there, bigger than life at the window.

“I take my leave of you; now I fly away

To the sunny reeds and marshes of my winter home.”

And that night you gaze moodily

At the moonlit apple-blossoms, for of course

Horror and repulsion do exist! They do! And you wonder,

How long will the perfumed dung, the sunlit clouds cover my heart?

And then some morning when the snow is flying

Or it lines the black fir-trees, the light cries,

The excited songs start up in the yard!

The feeding station is glad to receive its guests,

But how long can the stopover last?

The cold begins when the last song retires,

And even when they wing against the trees in bright formation

You know the peace they brought was long overdue.

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