Muted Blackbird

Quintessence
of fluting
blackbird’s gone;

at sunrise,
golden-beaked
jet-black throats

no longer sing,
though summer’s
in full swing.

Kim M. Russell, 15th July 2018

My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Fussy Little Forms: Tricube – also linked to Poets United Poetry Pantry

Marian is back in the Garden this weekend with Fussy Little Forms. We’re writing tricubes, in which:

  • each line contains three syllables;
  • each stanza contains three lines; and
  • each poem contains three stanzas.

52 thoughts on “Muted Blackbird”

    1. Sadly, this is what happens. Once blackbirds have nested and the fledglings have left, and they no longer have a territory to defend, they stop singing! I miss the blackbird in the morning. 😉

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  3. I think this is my favourite of the tricubes. You have made it look easy but the pace and description is so skillfully accomplished, and conveys your theme very aptly.
    Silent birds means that mating season is over, chicks hatched and ready to fly.. a sure sign that summer is reaching a conclusion.

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    1. Thank you, Kerry – you’ve understood it completely. We stayed overnight at a guest house along the coast. I wasn’t able to sleep and was looking forward to some birdsong but all I heard was an argument between some locals and very loud seagulls (leaving a message on my car)! I miss the blackbirds.

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  13. lovely way to use the form Kim – you’ve really captured the essence of the black bird and have used this form to compliment what you’ve wanted to say, with great ease!

    (odd isn’t it – but here, the black birds still do sing, even if it’s long past mating season; it’s just that they are more elusive about it … ah well, bird song still fills the air ~ there is joy in this)

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      1. well, birds will ruckus out! most mornings, I wake to the mad ravens/crows and then a trilling cardinal (well hidden), followed by the sparrows, finches, chickadees and other assorted feathered follies, along with cackling robins – such a symphony … so I suppose, best to be grateful that there is still bird song … beats honking horns. LOL

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  14. Trying to remember, if the Redwing Blackbird sings into July and later, in the local wetlands here. They have a melodic song, as I used to walk by their nests. Sadly, those areas have been turned into housing subdivisions.

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    1. It’s such a shame that different species of birds are declining. Luckily our garden is wild and the birds have plenty to eat, so we get to see quite a range.

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  24. I totally loved this – and the song by those other singers who are gone too (at least as the group they were). I am reminded, too, of my Dad singing ‘Bye-bye blackbird’ as he often did, one of my earliest and most beloved memories.

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