Thank you for visiting Madrona Grove.
With over 16,500 visitors in two years, you
have given me a wonderful present!
In a few weeks I’ll launch the first poetry book from this blog:
“Madrona Grove: Poems Written Under the Canopy”
My “staff” and I will make sure you’ll know how to purchase
a copy for your collection when it becomes available.
Meanwhile, please enjoy this holiday video card of myself and
the “staff” on a recent work retreat to Mt Baker, and a little
Mary Oliver, one of my favorite poets.
~Cheers!
White Eyes
by Mary Oliver
In winter
all the singing is in
the tops of the trees
where the wind-bird
all the singing is in
the tops of the trees
where the wind-bird
with its white eyes
shoves and pushes
among the branches.
Like any of us
he wants to go to sleep,
but he’s restless—
he has an idea,
and slowly it unfolds
from under his beating wings
as long as he stays awake.
But his big, round music, after all,
is too breathy to last.
So, it’s over.
In the pine-crown
he makes his nest,
he’s done all he can.
I don’t know the name of this bird,
I only imagine his glittering beak
tucked in a white wing
while the clouds—
which he has summoned
from the north—
which he has taught
to be mild, and silent—
thicken, and begin to fall
into the world below
like stars, or the feathers
of some unimaginable bird
that loves us,
that is asleep now, and silent—
that has turned itself
into snow.
shannon p. laws 