An osprey nest on a chimney near the Sanibel Island lighthouse. Florida. Paul Goldfinger photo. Feb. 2020 © Click image to enlarge the bird.
Osprey at the Tropicana Coop in Ft. Myers. 2018 © Paul Goldfinger photo.
Osprey
By George Held.
Osprey, you can see by the dawn’s
Early light
A fish ‘neath the finish of the bay
In your flight
As you circle and soar or you stall
Like a kite,
Ever ready to dive on your prey
When in sight;
Then you drop like a plummet until
You alight
On the brine with your talons outstretched
And they bite
Into scales of that silvery bass, lifting it clear
Of the bight
Of the bay with your ten-horse wings to retake
The sun’s light
And you land on your platform to tend to your nestling’s
End of night
Hunger, tearing the bass with your terrible beak
Into bite-
Sized gobbets for your fledgling to gorge on, its break-
Fast birthright
As your scion, O Osprey, you long-winged king
Of the heights.
This poem is from George Held’s first collection, Winged (1995.)
K.D. LANG
“Skylark.”
George Held must have had fun composing this; I think it should inspire the reader to keep it going with every re-write.
Parker’s nickname was Yardbird, southern slang for chicken, given him because he loved to eat chicken. Bird is an abbreviated version.
Great photo of the wood stork. I’ve never seen one live.
Birdland started out as a jazz mecca in 1949 at Broadway and 52nd Street. It was not named for an osprey; it was named for Charlie Parker, the great be-bop alto sax player, who was known as “Bird.” My friends and I would go to Birdland to hear live jazz. We were too young to drink, but we paid the admission and sat in the bleachers, near the stage.
George Held, a retired professor of English at Queens College and a published poet, told me that he loves birds and is particularly fond of the osprey.
Paul Goldfinger, Editor @Blogfinger.net