Happy Solstice birders!

The following is a poem written by Mary Oliver that I felt fit the occasion:


RED BIRD

Red bird came all winter
firing up the landscape
as nothing else could.

Of course I love the sparrows,
those dun colored darlings,
so hungry and so many.

I am a God-fearing feeder of birds.
I know He has many children,
not all of them bold in spirit.

Still,for whatever reason----
perhaps because the winter is so long
and the sky is so black-blue,

or perhaps because the heart narrows
as often as it opens---
I am grateful

that red bird comes all winter
firing up the landscape
as nothing else can do.