Originally published in 1987 in a short-lived publication called The Balcones Review, this is the opening of a longer work. Today, as I look out my window at that same tree, I hear the birds, no longer silent.
Uccello
the wind is what
the stillness
desires to say
each instant
collapsing into itself
like a bud
returning
to the seed
listen
the birds in my tree
are silent
as echoes
before their brief
lives are
silent
something thrashes
in the leaves
the feather
spiraling
slowly
is not only what
it is
as the candle
is more
than flame
or a moment
curling
to darkness
the question
is of clarity
I built a frame
but placed
nothing in it
the wind
blows through
quietly as if
between silences
there exists
only silence or
light
the familiar embrace
unfolding
The formatting isn’t right. Not wanting to waste more time on learning code (hey, I barely have enough time to write), I’ve decided to instead provide a pdf of how the poem should look. It might be interesting to compare the two.
O at the Edges 
Reblogged this on Calm Reflections and commented:
This left me speechless!
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Thank you for reblogging this. I hope it left you speechless in a good way.
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Indeed
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Very calming. Nice photo choice.
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I love the balance of the rhetorical and the natural; such naturalness, and self reference.
a moving stillness.
lovely stuff.
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A person can definitely get lost in the moment of this; thoroughly enjoyable.
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This was beautifully captured
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The ‘proper’ formatting definitely adds to the poem.
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Beautiful..It will take more reading. but the words curl and angle in that so elemental a shape..the spiral.
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Nice work you’re sharing here. Thanks for checking out my weird blog. Peace and best, John
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I practice Buddhist meditation which stresses facing what is, and staying in the present moment without fabricating a story. I have used the analogy of facing into the wind to help myself relate to the practice. I was fascinated by your opening: “the wind is what the stillness desires to say each instant collapsing into itself”.
I am also a little frustrated with the built-in formatting of WordPress, and have not wanted to take the time to learn more html. I liked the appearance of the piece on the pdf file. My husband, also a writer and poet, is very sensitive to the structure and appearance of the words on the page.
Thank you for checking out my blog.
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Beautiful. I like the slow “unfolding” of the poem.
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That was a very enjoyable read. I love this: “as echoes before their brief lives are silent”… I dig the fact that I had to do a double take there, and had a delightful moment of meaning discovery! Maybe this is a sad acknowledgment of my ignorance or slow processing… LOL, just felt like sharing! Nice piece.
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Thank you. It was interesting to find this piece still readable after so many years. I wish I could say the same for others.
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The way you expressed that is evidence of inspired thought in my opinion- sure there are more just like now or on the way! Good stuff!
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Actually, I prefer the first version ad it allows the focus upon the simple yet exacting imagery
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Interesting.
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love it.
~ Eric
hey, what formatting are you wondering about?
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Thank you.
Indenting lines – it’s not just a matter of spacing.
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click on the editors’ text button… on the right side next to visual button
insert
for each blank space,
make sure to save the draft
sometimes the non breaking space otherwise may disappear
Try it on your poem.
~ Eric
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Thank you. I’ll try that!
Sent from my iPhone
>
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did the format not work ???
I tried it and it worked for me.
It won’t save though if more edits are made after inserting the non-blank character – I did it and then discovered that it has to be a final edit.
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I haven’t tried to revise it yet.
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To what does the title refer?
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I’m not sure why the title is Uccello, except that it is the Italian word for bird, and I’d been working on a series of bird poems for quite a while when this burst forth, and birds were a very real presence (at least for me) in this particular poem.
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Ah! 🙂
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The pdf layout works perfectly – really lifts it. Great stuff. I know on my site the poetry layout is rubbish, and everytime I put something up, I swear, Never again. I think you’ve cracked it with this!
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beautiful:
the wind
blows through
quietly as if
between silences
there exists
only silence or
light
the familiar embrace
unfolding
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Very nice.
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this is beautiful. And the formatting wreaks havoc on my blog as well…
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This leaves me in the inner silent sanctuary 🙂
Beautiful poetry!
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I love short-line poetry!
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Hey! I love your writing, it’s so beautiful. I just wanted to let you know that you’ve given me my first like and I’m more than appreciative of that. I hope you stick around a check out a few more things of mine, I’m new to the WordPress community. Thanks again for liking and I look forward to getting a chance to read more of your work! Have a great day 🙂
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“the wind
blows through
quietly as if
between silences
there exists
only silence or” – incredible.
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Pingback: #Birds #Trees #Poetry #Design | johndwmacdonald
Regarding formatting: a poet friend helped me figure it out.You do need to know the size and name of your font. Maybe you can try it before you post it. On your dashboard you can do this. Before my poems with unusual formatting I write
You can check my first poem, Word Tag (also shown in about on Sheryl’s Sporadic Word Tag) to see why that poem needed formatting.
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Sorry. For some reason what I used did not show up there. It disappeared and there was a change in formatting which resulted from what I wrote. If you are interested send me a message on FaceBook or maybe we can find another way to communicate. Sigh.
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Beautiful. There really is no other word.
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I thought this was beautiful…leaves you feeling peaceful. I will definitely read again, its one of those poems where you want to savor the words and the pictures forming in your mind as you read…Thank you for stopping by my blog 🙂
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The formatting makes a lot of difference to the appreciation of the poem. More than I had expected. I can understand as I had problem with formatting as well but last night my son just helped me solve one of my formatting problem by googling it and give me that look – why don’t try the obvious! ha ha. I could kill him! Everyone should read the pdf version, the wordpress version does not do the poem justice.
Love the poem especially about framing silence in-between silences. I’ve to stop and imagine how can I hear silence between silence and then realized though I may feel the different in intensity of the wind, I may not perceive any difference in silence. It may not be what you intended but still grateful that you gave me this insight.
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I found it very fluid. I love the words, the movement and I had no problem understanding how it was formatted. Maybe since I write poetry my mind is already searching for the way it is meant to go. I believe poetry is beautiful in that even if the meaning understood stands apart from that of the author, it is no less perfect. Words…
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That is indeed the beauty of poetry.
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Many thanx for sharing your interesting and unique verse amd info with us, Robert. Will have to return t read more of your stuff. Thanx for visiting my blog and have a wonderful day. Peace.
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Reblogged this on Wordexchange and commented:
Beautiful
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Love it!
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It has aged much better than I.
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Thoughtfulness and leanness serve your poetry well. The spacing in the .pdf is a good enhancement of the content. You may have learned about “hard space” by now (and being a poet you might smile at the phrase) but just in case you want to add hard spacing to your bag-o-tricks, here’s a WordPress-specific link: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/hard-spaces-how-do-i-get-them
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Thank you. I’ve been hard pressed to hard space, but I now have the link bookmarked.
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Well, lovely stuff. Initially drawn by the title. Uccello was an early Renaissance artist, one of the first to play with perspectives and 3D effects. Perhaps a coincidence, but his paintings , though full of images of movement, seem to be completely still and silent……..
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I was unaware of the artist (except by name) until a friend, some 28 years ago, after I asked whether the title should be changed, pointed out Uccello’s work with perspective. It was indeed a coincidence, but one I cherish.
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the movement of this poem is enchanting- it feels like I’m being slowly rocked back and forth. thank you for this!
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I can only hope that it didn’t rock you to sleep.
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I’m not a code-person either so I copy from Pages onto the Word/text clipboard option, then paste into draft… with good results, a qualified ‘usually’. Ucello is sublime.
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fine work
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