Emily Dickinson Duet of Original Poems by Charles Weld

Both poems below contain lines from Emily Dickinson and are about birds. So, a little nod to the “Collect, Remix, Repeat” prompt of April 11, but more in line with the “Not the Kind You Flip” prompt of April 26. I’ve been writing single-rhyme poems with Emily lines for about a year, but the bird subject returned when our spring migrants returned in April and May.

Duet with Emily about White-throated Sparrows

They stop in our yard for a week or two
late April, early May—passing through
fast on their way north to nest. A few
blue notes this year, the only clue,
the minor third repeated, no bird in view—
a single term of cautious melody—
sounding tired after weeks of migratory
travel from Georgia, Florida—some southern vicinity.
Yankee listeners like Emily and family
heard the bird say, “Old Sam Peabody, Peabody,”
a moniker to tame strangeness with familiarity,
and ease it into a place among the certainties.
Unordered flux, bordering the realm of taboo,
called out for intervention. Measure, name, subdue.

Duet with Emily at Dawn

Birds, a Summer morning Before the Quick of Day
start in our yard with robins who arpeggio away
in the darkness before a cardinal joins the melee.
An alarm sounds from a jay
or crow—scolds, both wanting their say.
Then every bird is bold to go on record and forté
amps up to fortissimo in a wild array
of tunings. By 7—I’m surprised—the heyday
is over. Dawn’s promise begins to decay.
The sun is up, and things weigh
in, each with its own gravity. Some days I say yea,
some nay to unremitting Hope—active always
Yet never wearing out—words from the sensei
who studied life deeply, but stayed outside its fray.

Charles Weld’s poems have been collected in two chapbooks, Country I Would Settle In (Pudding House, 2004) and Who Cooks For You? (Kattywompus, 2012.) A full-length collection, Seringo, was published by Kelsay Books in 2023. A partially-retired administrator for a non-profit agency serving the mental health needs of children and youth, he lives in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York.