Richard Greene: "First Notes"

Though winter is with us still
the birds have begun to sing
to the cues of spring,
first a cardinal, then a wren
and now this morning in early March,
as a chill dawn pinks the sky,
the wistful fluting of a mourning dove
which, after winter’s longueurs,
when few but crows were heard,
now finds itself bestirred 
to loose its song.


[Curator's note: Listen to the call of a mourning dove.]

"First Notes" by Richard Greene, from Explorations (Antrim House Books, 2009). Text as published on the poet's website. Reprinted by permission of the poet.

Audio credit: William R. Fish, Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Art credit: "Mourning Dove," image by unknown photographer with Bird & Blooms.