Woken by Birdsong

This morning I was woken by the sound of birdsong,
a faint and distant tiny tin whistle of a song,
as I lay in the cosy comfort of my warm bed
and contemplated getting up and whistling along.

Pulling a woolly sweater over my tousled head,
I stepped outside, where a two-toned light began to spread,
permeating clouds with a wash of yellow and pink,
and disturbed icy dewdrops where my feet dared to tread.

The ground beneath dark shadows that caused my feet to sink
was covered with a veil of frost that silvered night’s ink.
I searched for the tinkling source of my broken slumber
but the bird had fallen silent as the dawn sky pinked,

Kim M. Russell, 31st January 2019

wokenbybirdsong

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Meeting the Bar Poetry Forms: The Rubaiyat

Frank is our host this week with another form to exercise our poetic muscles in a continuation of our poetry forms series.

After the sonnet we have the rubaiyat, the basic unit of which is the ruba’i. Frank has provided us with a background history, information on basic structure, meter and rhyme schemes, and asks us to write a ruba’i or rubaiyat. He has also shared an example to inspire us: Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’.

52 thoughts on “Woken by Birdsong”

  5. I like the storytelling in this… it actually has a likeness to stopping by woods I think with your travel so much shorter than the long treck in the snow by the narrator in Frost’s poem. So even if you have used the longer lines from Omar’s original quatrain’s I see a stronger resemble to Frost’s connected quatrains… excellent

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  6. Nice use of the longer 13 syllable format. I used connecting quatrains as well, endeavoring to spin a tale; working with Frost’s 8 syllable lines.

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    1. Thank you, Glenn. I’ll continue reading and commenting shortly. It’s another freezing morning over here but I’ve seem some parts of the States have -30 and lower temperatures!

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  11. Oh, that’s lovely. That long line is very brave, but you make it seem effortless. The form and the subject also made me think of one of the few bits of Omar Khayyam I can remember. This is a very English, frosty response to his rosy fingered dawn and bird of night.

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  15. This was a beautiful morning Kim, a joy to fresh crisp read! The photo is killer as well. Deeply moody and captivating. I got inspired and wrote two Frost inspired rubaiyat love poems – one dark, one filled with light. The light filled one has bird songs and dew like yours… 🙂

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  16. I love this, Kim. Most especially these words
    ” a veil of frost that silvered night’s ink.”
    I am dreaming of the morning I can have my window open and there are green leaves and once again birds in the branches. Spring — do hurry up and come!

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  20. What a lovely morning you paint. I’ve noticed that the little birds are suddenly more active in the past 2 weeks and are singing in the morning around here, and the robins have appeared. Love your internal and end rhymes.

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  22. Our muse was slightly similar, Kim. 🙂 I enjoyed the story that came to life in this Rubaiyat. This line is stunning…”a veil of frost that silvered night’s ink.”

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