Brown Small Bird
The nightingale will always be a mythical bird.
Did you ever see one outside poetry?
The nightingale is named into anonymity, like a Monk,
like the celebrated girl who is only beautuful.
What a different thing it was when
Wild-Bird took
actual berries from my hand.
Blessed, I wanted statues made of it, a
city named, or something
Brown, small, bird.
Not to be known by his name anymore
than you, or me
by Lew Welch
from Ring of Bone
Collected Poems 1950-1971
Grey Fox Press, Bolinas CA.
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