The Poetry Friday celebration is at Jama’s Alphabet Soup today! She has strawberry shortcake and mother memories on the menu, so do stop by!

Last weekend I spent a lot of time outside, much of it in the company of Robert, the talented photographer and nature lover.

His latest trick is using is iPhone to call birds in close enough for him to take pictures. He agitated a pine warbler with his persistent calling — that little bird was buzzing very close to the sound of what he thought was another bird in his territory!

He also discovered a pair of summer tanagers nesting somewhere in our pines. Their favorite snack? BEES. Our place must be summer tanager heaven.

All of this bird calling and watching sent me looking for public domain bird poems. Today I’m sharing “Bird Raptures” by Christina Georgina Rossetti.

Bird Raptures

    The sunrise wakes the lark to sing,
The moonrise wakes the nightingale.
Come darkness, moonrise, every thing
That is so silent, sweet, and pale:
Come, so ye wake the nightingale.

Make haste to mount, thou wistful moon,
Make haste to wake the nightingale:
Let silence set the world in tune
To hearken to that wordless tale
Which warbles from the nightingale

O herald skylark, stay thy flight
One moment, for a nightingale
Floods us with sorrow and delight.
To-morrow thou shalt hoist the sail;
Leave us to-night the nightingale.

To learn a bit about nightingales and hear one sing, visit the British Library’s wildlife recordings website.

Our favorite night bird is the whippoorwill. It has a distinctive call.

My favorite bird to spot — and I saw two on Saturday — is the indigo bunting. So vivid! So cheerful in song! It feels like the bluebird of happiness has arrived.

I hope you see your own bluebird of happiness this weekend, whatever form it may take.

Copyright Keri Collins Lewis 2005-2014. All rights reserved.