Early enough

A hummingbird AND a tree full of cedar waxwings.  Who knew there would be such a reward for getting up early this morning?

I got up early enough

To witness the hummingbird

In the bee balm,

My first hummingbird

Of the year.

Then

As if to say

See what you miss

By sleeping later

The mountain ash filled

Momentarily

With cedar waxwings.

Now there is one lone robin

At the very top

Of the mountain ash.

He is

Silent in the sun.

May 10 (for Sue)

We stood in the parking lot of the bird sanctuary on Friday.  The we included Sue Leaf, the author of the biography about my great-grandfather, Thomas Sadler Roberts.  The we included four great-grandchildren.  We had just returned from a bird walk in the snow, during which we had seen eighteen of twenty hoped-for birds.  Sue told us she had to make sure her hummingbird feeder was ready.  No matter the weather, no matter the temperature, the hummingbirds always arrive May 10 to her backyard.  They know the food will be there.  

She says the hummingbirds arrive

On May 10

Every year.

Rain

Shine

Wind

Snow

The hummingbirds arrive

May 10.

They do not care

Whether the climate has changed.

They do not care

If it is an unusually warm spring

Or if snow still covers

The ground.

They arrive May 10.

They do not wait

For perfect weather.

They know

They will be fed.

Let it be

The way it is

Already.

May it be

The way it is

Already.

May we simply know

Like hummingbirds.

They simply know

They will be cared for

When they arrive

May 10.

Hummingbird

The columbine bloomed early this year and has already gone to seed.  My husband and I have wondered whether we missed the hummingbirds because of the warmer spring.  He thinks they are primarily light-dependent for migration, so we are still waiting for them to come through, maybe hang out a bit.  I still wonder whether I missed them.

I must have been thinking

Of hummingbirds

Before I went to sleep.

Last night I saw a hummingbird

In the desert.

It drank from a flower

In the shadow of a rock ledge.

When I tried to show you,

It was gone.

Hummingbirds are not

The lingering sort,

Even in dreams.

You will have to believe me:

I saw it.

Yes,

In the desert;

Yes,

In my dream;

Yes,

It counts.