Today Like Yesterday
and the day before: it’s happening.
It’s so simple, I hardly need any language.
Right there, through the window.
And in the trees, hardly visible, the birds
are back and going about their own business.
Do they remember their long journey?
The tall buildings, the wires?
Are they singing for the ones who are absent?
Are they, like me, singing to welcome in the dawn?
While everyone else in my family is sleeping,
the city is taken over by their song.
And everything, bathed in the silver light of morning,
is part of another story and its own.
I wrote this poem, as I did many of the poems in my book I Say the Sky, early in the morning, at that time between night and day when the light is returning.
In any period of transition, whether it's the transition from night into day, or any other period of change, poetry can be a companion.
I believe that people, like birds, are meant to sing, that it's in our nature to express ourselves, that song and poetry express our greatest joys and also our greatest sorrows.
More morning poems and prompts
PROMPTS
- What do you see out your window when you wake up? Write a poem to it.
- Write a poem about being up before other people.
- Write a poem in some kind of dialogue with other beings around you.
- Write a poem using all or some of the following words: happening, language, business, journey, bathed, song.