Poetry Anyday - Red Bird

I am at home waiting for fire safety inspection people to come and it just so happens to be Friday. So here is a poem by Mary Oliver, who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1984, called Red Bird. You can read it online here.

Red Bird

Red bird came all winter

firing up the landscape

as nothing else could.

Of course I love the sparrows,

those dun-colored darlings,

so hungry and so many.

I am a God-fearing feeder of birds.

I know He has many children,

not all of them bold in spirit.

Still, for whatever reason –

perhaps because the winter is so long

and the sky so black-blue,

or perhaps because the heart narrows

as often as it opens –

I am grateful

that red bird comes all winter

firing up the landscape

as nothing else can do.

Mary Oliver

Picture from: http://www.sfondideldesktop.com