Thirteen Ways Of Looking Poem by Barry Middleton

I
a green parakeet sails
and darts in the Florida
confusion of passion

II
silence is midnight
and remembering
a drifting feather
a beating wing

III
when waves break
on the shore
the soaring
the seabirds wake

IV
deep in the swamp
alligators bellow
ibis strut
a cretaceous fusion

V
archetypal visions
invoke
a time I once knew
a nervous egret
an ancestor

VI
the essence of hope
is like entering a room
a parrot cocks its head

VII
when evening comes
the rain reminds me
of the rose
of the wings

VIII
a never silent crow
complains to the pines

IX
the heat of summer
is a soliloquy
is a mockingbird
is music

X
the next issue
falls like a falcon

XI
at times all I know
is the slow rhythm
of the heron

XII
the green meteor
is just a rock
with wings

XIII
the finale
is ice cream
a feather
a strawberry
dream