It starts before dawn
And slowly grows as the darkness of night changes to gray
Gray melds to the pink-blue of morning
The song builds to a full throated chorus
Hundreds of voices raised in joyful acclaim
Beautiful, random, cacophonous, rhythmic
As the morning peaks over the horizon
The music reaches a crescendo
I smile
Spring is here!
Lianne and I usually keep the windows open in our house around this time of year, and waking up to the sound of birds singing is a great spring memory for me. What inspired this poem however, was a recent morning when I was out in my garage working out before dawn. I noticed that the birds were really celebrating. I tried to count how many different birds I could hear, and I got to about 8 or 9 before my ears/mind couldn’t unravel the remaining sounds. When I closed my eyes it was overwhelming. Thus, the smile … and the poem.
I was telling the kids about it on the way to school and I mentioned that the birds start singing out just before dawn arrives. I wanted to impress upon them the wonder and awe I felt. I didn’t get much of a reaction, but Ava did pipe up from the back seat with a good question.
“Who’s Dawn?” 🙂