<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Covered In Birds</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 14px;" class=""><i class="">for Bill Horvitz 1947 to 2017</i></span></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 13px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Once our hands were small flightless birds</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">longing only for the recession of gravity, the wings</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">of angels. Pressed together, though they did not rise</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">or raise us up as flapping might, in prayer</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">they gave off light.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Once I dreamed the two long melancholy notes </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">of the song sparrow, and sang them back </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and dreamed of flight, my plumes open </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">to sweep the moon that rose above dark hills </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">a great distance inhabited by sadness</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I dreamed the birds, all the birds. </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I dreamed crow, those missives of night, those </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">morning stars erased, whose message remained </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">a mystery held in the shimmer of feathers in sun</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">so black they became pure light.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Raptor, too, could seem the source. </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Golden Eagle, a peach-white river of flight across fog, </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">a struck match igniting air. Hawk</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">was the highest leaf on the tree </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and by night became fire.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I dreamed rising and rising from the marsh reeds, </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">an iridescence shedding water without thought. </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I dreamed the heron’s mincing. I dreamed the birds</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and saw a gust of gulls that became the horizon – </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">rising and rising without what we know as thought.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I heard a lullaby and wondered</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">that the little seed-eater had given Brahms his first notes.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I dreamed mocking bird sang to nourish the flowers </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">with longing, opening and arising from solitude until</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">they blossomed into pure joy.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Once I dreamed the birds, all the birds, showed me how</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">their<i class=""> up</i> carries the weight of light. Opening and rising,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I saw a puff of smoke out over the fields, a crucible </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">of starlings, open sky, the churn and fall and tumble, </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">their swoop of flight clear as script I could almost decipher.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I dreamed of all the birds, and vultures came</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">flying before the scythe of the sun, hard copper</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">beaks, brown feathers prayer flags fluttering</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">over my bones.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Rising and arising below clouds whose weight </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">they alone know, I dreamed the birds,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">all the birds I could not name came down,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">calling me by the name I had forgotten.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">The birds, all the birds came down</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">and carried me away. In their flight </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">I read the indecipherable script of the gods. </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">Peace</i> it said, and as I knew it, the word vanished </div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">in their turning against the wind.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">[Composite poem by 9 Sonoma County poets</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Elizabeth Carothers Herron</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Katherine Hastings</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Mike Tuggle</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Maya Khosla</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Phyllis Meshelum</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Jodi Hottel</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Greg Mahrer</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Larry Robinson</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;" class="">Terry Ehret</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; font-family: Times; min-height: 14px;" class=""><br class=""></div></body></html>