Patricia Callan – String Poet

Birding at the Cemetery

This is a lively place. I see the high
degree of landscape art so well displayed;
a festival of trees and shrubs arrayed
for the passed and planned that friends might lie
in this city green, or amble by
the paths of columbine where children played,
chasing wooden hoops beneath the shade
of beech and maple spanned across the sky.

At the gate, a faded blackboard lists
ducks and warblers, chats and orioles.
I read, then plot my walk to look for birds
above my buried friends whose call persists
in me. I stroll, pause above their souls
listening; a bird’s cry sounds like sacred words.

One thought on “Patricia Callan”

Patti Tana says:

2012/05/31 at 4:47 PM

Patricia, this is a very tight little poem, rich in images and feeling. I enjoyed reading it.

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Patricia Callan, playwright and poet, in collaboration with composer Yoko Nakatani, wrote the narration for “The Adventures of John Manjiro”,a suite of piano pieces performed frequently throughout the United States. Her poems have been published in The Lyric, So to Speak, Red Lights, The Poets’ Touchstone and other journals. She is a member of the Powow River Poets in Newburyport, Massachusetts and is a graduate of Boston University College of Fine Arts and Lesley University.