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| 1781 painting by Maruyama Okyo |
Fanning out its tail
in the spring breeze,
see--a peacock!
-Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902)
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Saturday, July 26, 2014
"Vultures" A poem by Margaret Atwood
Vultures
by Margaret Atwood
Hung there in the thermal
whiteout of noon, dark ash
in the chimney’s updraft, turning
slowly like a thumb pressed down
on target; indolent V’s; flies, until they drop.
Then they’re hyenas, raucous
around the kill, flapping their black
umbrellas, the feathered red-eyed widows
whose pot bodies violate mourning,
the snigger at funerals,
the burp at the wake.
They cluster, like beetles
laying their eggs on carrion,
gluttonous for a space, a little
territory of murder: food
and children.
Frowzy old saint, bald-
headed and musty, scrawny-
necked recluse on your pillar
of blazing air which is not
heaven: what do you make
of death, which you do not
cause, which you eat daily?
I make life, which is prayer.
I make clean bones.
I make a gray zinc noise
which to me is a song.
Well, heart, out of all this
carnage, could you do better?
Reaktion Books Ltd. Animal Series Books (Natural History)
Reaktion Books Ltd. (Animal Series):
Peacock by Christine E. Jackson (Amazon)
Falcon by Helen MacDonald (Amazon)
Owl by Desmond Morris (Amazon)
Crow by Boria Sax (Amazon)
Parrot by Paul Carter (Amazon)
Pinguin by Stephen Martin (Amazon)
Sparrow by Kim Todd (Amazon)
Vulture by Thom Van Dooren (Amazon)
Chicken by Annie Potts (Amazon)
Duck by Victoria de Rijke (Amazon)
Ostrich by Edgar Williams (Amazon)
New bird books on the bookshelf
On Rare Birds by Anita Albus ($6.98 Daedalus Books)
The American Bird Conservancy Guide to the 500 Most Important Bird Areas in the United States by Robert M. Chipley($7.98 Daedalus Books)
Peregrine Falcon by Patrick Stirling-Aird ($6.98 Daedalus Books)
Did you know? BIRDS IN THE BOOK OF JOB
Did you know there are 7 species of birds referenced in the Book of Job (KJV)?
Which birds are they, and why are they mentioned?
More coming soon...
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