• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

The Poetry Box

  • About
    • Mission
    • What’s in a Name?
    • Meet the Team
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
  • Contests & Awards
    • The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize 2025
    • 2024 Winners
    • 2023 Winners
    • 2022 Winners
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
    • 2019 Winners
    • 2018 Winners
    • Pushcart Nominees
  • Publishing
    • Poetry Books, Chapbooks, & Illustrated Collections
    • Testimonials from Authors
  • The Poeming Pigeon
  • Events
    • The Poetry Box – LIVE
    • Our YouTube Channel
    • All Events / Readings
  • Newsletters
  • Bookstore
    • All Books
    • Overstock Sale
    • Art Prints
  • Cart

The Language of Birds by Linda Strever

December 1, 2015 by The Poetry Box Leave a Comment

“The Language of Birds” by Linda Strever, published in Poeming Pigeons: Poems about Birds, released April, 2015 by The Poetry Box.

The Language of Birds

~ for Lois

More than once I’ve asked for a sign.

I’ve asked mute air and sky how to find
you after you pass from this life.

Today a mourning dove crashes into
the window, sits stunned on the deck —
her soft body, her whispers of color —
and I get it now, watching her recover,
watching her sweet head, her shining eye.

She lifts to the feeder, coos, and another
dove flies in, struts and bobs on orange feet.
They feed together quietly, dip into
the birdbath undisturbed, as if to offer
ease on this day, the last one before

you’ll begin your leaving. Tomorrow
you plan to stop exactly what the doves do
now — eating and drinking — so you can slip
the rest of the way out. Yes, you’ll come
to me in birds, and I realize I’ve known it

since last summer, just after you were
diagnosed. Startled by a thud, I went outside
to find the blown-glass garden ball lying
on the deck, whole, an opalescent mirror
for the sun. Two ravens circled low over

my head, and I had to smile at the brightness
they’d tried to steal. Yesterday in the woods
I laid my palm against a cedar tree. Two
band-tails burst from its branches, and I
glimpsed the white curve of their rising.

Share to Social Media:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • More
  • Email
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Filed Under: Pushcart Poems Tagged With: Linda Strever

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I accept that my given data and my IP address is sent to a server in the USA only for the purpose of spam prevention through the Akismet program.More information on Akismet and GDPR.

Footer

Gold Logo  

Email:
Shawn@ThePoetryBox.com

Talk/Text:
(530)409-0721

The Poetry Box Newsletter Signup

Calls for Submissions, New Releases, Publishing Opportunities, Readings





CLMP logo
Copyright © 2025 The Poetry Box · Site Designed by Shawn Aveningo Sanders · Powered by Genesis
%d