Singers & Poets: Today's minstrels
Winter Wren
By Autumn J. Laird
***
Bird singing in snow laden night
In my winter slumber
Wren calling me to venture the maze
To build the bridges of stone
Water rushing under way
Deep tides pulling the air into the eternal spiral
Where I dare not fall
With each able song I must answer
Call the voice of the sunset with perfect pitch
Each trill higher and higher till the stars unfold around me
Each an intricate set of ordered chaos
With complex sets of bars
Lifting my voice higher and higher until I am lightheaded
And the gray of the early morning predawn
Awakens the chorus to which wren must soprano
Soloing the whole night through with cuckoo and nightingale
Whip-poor-will leading you into the glen of night
While nighthawks shrill fluttery dance raises to the sky and drops
Owl harks his fellow mates to respond
But small little wren continues his song deep into the woods
Where even the loudest calls do not venture
Deep in the shadows a brush-laden trail leads
To the caverns of wren down below
To sing the song of calm warm winds off the heated lands
And of whispering trees with heavy fruited branches
For here is the proud little wren
Who flew on eagles back to reach the sun
To become the king of birds
And he sings such a song begging the bard to venture a try.