An Aubade, praise poem for the morning, inspired by Frederick Snock’s Morning presented on The Writer’s Almanac post yesterday.
All year long there is
a window by the red coffee pot,
a ship’s porthole looking
out to the day’s beginning.Sometimes there is a jay
in the birdbath beyond,
if the cat isn’t there,
flapping feathers clean and blue.Today, I filled the feeder
with sweet red juice
waiting for spring hummers
come to decorate the sky.
Lovely image.
I hope the hummers will come my way later, Margaret. This is a poem of longing, I think, waiting for spring things. I love the thought of a ship’s porthole. I’ve been on a couple of sailing ships & we did look out upon awakening.
Funny thing is my window is like a porthole because my house was built by a shipbuilder. I should’ve posted a picture of the window too. Thanks for stopping by.
So it is time to fill the feeders. They will look out of place against the leaf litter but beautiful against the carpet of blue flowers. I must get to it.
I feel like I write the same comment every time, but pointing out and praising elements of your craft never gets old! 🙂
“All year long there is a window”…such a brilliant beginning. Could lead to another poem, a series of shifts and contrasts of what’s seen out the “porthole” as the seasons change…but anyway, the porthole is a fantastic metaphor too (house as ship — unmoving, but the vessel of our journey. Then mixed with personification — the window itself is looking. Great!).
Then, sound sound sound, as always in your writing — “birdbath beyond”, “flapping feathers”, “clean and blue”, “filled the feeder”, and my favorite — flipping the “to” so you can have “hummers come” instead of “hummers to come”. The alliteration would feel like overkill if your lines weren’t so natural, so conversational — as a result, it’s barely noticed, just part of the stream of your voice. Wonderful! 🙂
And I never get tired of hearing it. I so appreciate your ear/eye. I am a fan of alliteration and I’m glad it isn’t overkill here. The first line was taken from the Snock poem. I love to sit next to good poets and write with them. Thanks so much for your comments.
Come to decorate the sky…that is the line I LOVE.