Birdsong Bonanza

Dawn chorus is a wall of sound,
wildest festival of the year;
spring flowers and blossoms abound,
and the summer will soon be here.

When birdsong’s almost at its peak,
dawn chorus is a wall of sound,
blackbirds open their golden beaks
to take part in the joyful round.

Maytime magic is all around;
in the hedgerows along the way
dawn chorus is a wall of sound -
an exquisite start to the day.

From a gold sea of oilseed rape,
a burst of butterflies astounds.
But wonder starts when we awake
to dawn chorus - a wall of sound.

Kim M. Russell, 25th May 2023

Image by Marvin Zettl on Unsplash

It’s Thursday and we are Meeting the Bar with a Form for All at the dVerse Poets Pub, where Grace is hosting with a poetry form known as Quatern, which was last prompted by Gay in 2012.

Grace reminds us that a Quatern is a sixteen-line French form composed of four quatrains. It is similar to the Kyrielle and the Retourne, with a refrain that is in a different place in each quatrain. The first line of stanza one is the second line of stanza two, third line of stanza three, and fourth line of stanza four. A quatern has eight syllables per line. It does not have to be iambic or follow a set rhyme scheme. Gay said that it’s probably easiest to find the refrain first.

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37 thoughts on “Birdsong Bonanza”

  2. Beautiful quatern Kim. I can hear the bird songs and the wall of sound. What a wonderful time to hear those sounds and see Maytime’s magic. The last stanza is specially striking with the dawn chorus:
    From a gold sea of oilseed rape,
    a burst of butterflies astounds.

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      1. I love a blackbird’s song. We have a crotchety robin that always makes me laugh. He’s quite tame with Peder. Peder works in the garden, and the robin waits for worms to appear.

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  8. I appreciate your verses of songs, bird songs. I sing with the mocking birds sometimes. They scatter around in our neighborhood, generally on roof tops. Most times I answer one, it responds, and soon the whole neighborhood is sing. I only know one refrain, the one that proliferates, “Who cooks for you” in their pitch.
    ..

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    1. Thank you, Jim. I will never hear a mocking bird in real life, although I have listened to them on the worldwide web. I wonder what one would sing to me.

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    1. My husband doesn’t like me having the window open, he feels the cold and gates flies. But I’m an early riser so I get to hear birdsong anyway.

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  16. Bravo. Your spring dawn futs intomy everyday menu of bird songs here in Trinidad. Its just that some days are scorching hot like today and some days rather rainy like it will be in the next few months.
    Happy Saturday Kim.

    Much💖love

    Liked by 1 person

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