Enough already! Never in my life
have I heard so much cursing
and complaining, so much rank
self-pitying, so many people
living by their grievances
alone. I get it, times are tough,
but by the gods, can’t we just have
a little music? Listen – hear
that mockingbird? All morning he’s
been singing from his broken tree,
perfecting endlessly the variations
on his favorite themes,
incorporating every melody
he’s ever heard. A virtuoso bird.
Was Mozart ever more inspired?
Of course, the mockingbird is just
a bird, but who’s to say he doesn't love
performing, doesn’t love his song.
And now a common robin adds
his train of warbled notes, composing
so enthusiastically you’d swear
his song’s a canticle to joy.
Yes, I’m aware the birds are dying,
species disappearing overnight,
as we might well ourselves. Give off
disparaging the world, my friend.
Against despair, the mockingbird
still sings, defiantly alive,
as if he’d be the last bird singing.
Larry Ollivier
A recent transplant from Reno, Nevada, who relocated to Silver City two years ago after spending ten years as a high school English teacher. He says that poetry, “both writing and reading, is one of the pillars of” his identity. He continues, “I write to understand myself, the world, and my own place in the world. My life was poorer during the years I wasn't writing poetry and has been enriched immeasurably by finally reviving my practice of poetry.”
