Chad Norman: 2 poems

Return of the Juncos

for Rick Waldau, bird photographer

Taking the tape off
versus putting the tape on,
holes in the feeder-bottom feed.

There on hoof-printed snow
an unhanded sprinkle
like freckles on peeked cheeks.

Even as branches release morning
each falling seed has a story
one which ends in a beak
no longer forced to peck at
the frozen feed once above
in a broken twirling feeder. 

A return means they assist
one another not to starve
helping the hole to allow
millet and kernels of corn,
the face at a window, witness
to what hands can provide.

Sometimes the night's ice
prevents an appreciated view,
each opportunity to observe
becomes a smile, reason not to
feel winter is against eyes
a brief series of moments,
simple belief in the fluttering
or rewards a chirp may leave.

The Meaning of Amazement

I witness a return,
the miracle happens:
actual honey-bees
are really back!

The first
of the flowers
imitate
the sun.

Drops of rain
in the ear,
morsels of
eventual understanding.

---

_{Chad Norman lives and writes in Truro, Nova Scotia. In 1992 he was awarded the Gwendolyn MacEwen Memorial Award For Poetry, the judges were Margaret Atwood, Barry Callaghan, and Al Purdy. His poems appear in journals, magazines, anthologies around the world. A new book, A Matter Of Inclusion, is now out from Mwanaka Media & Publishing.}

_{See Richard Hanus}