"Turkish Nuts" by Josephine Florens
Meia Geddes | A Brief Song
After Donald Kroodsma
He studies birdsong, sees song as sonogram––
downy woodpecker, yellow-billed sapsucker,
chestnut-sided warbler. The softer the sound,
the lighter the mark; the louder, the darker.
Song as sketch, on notecard, he stands in a field,
a new musical each day. Slivers of cycles per
second create time anew. Sometimes listening
can only go so far –– see the song for what it is,
study something with another sense. How does
a bird learn its song? Babbling practice of sound.
Millions of years form the back of a bird’s throat.
Duration, frequency, vibrations on a linear scale,
he studies the slow, steady, sometimes irregular
shaping of air. Song as phrase, composed notes,
long whistles, rapid trills, distinctive wails. He
slows the speed to see each moment of sound.
He learns that birds learn the local sounds, and
summer-born babies learn more. He learns that
day song and dawn song will differ, that there
are simple and complex songs. He learns to listen
and finds himself ready to hear the repertoire.
He studies birdsong, sees song as sonogram––
downy woodpecker, yellow-billed sapsucker,
chestnut-sided warbler. The softer the sound,
the lighter the mark; the louder, the darker.
Song as sketch, on notecard, he stands in a field,
a new musical each day. Slivers of cycles per
second create time anew. Sometimes listening
can only go so far –– see the song for what it is,
study something with another sense. How does
a bird learn its song? Babbling practice of sound.
Millions of years form the back of a bird’s throat.
Duration, frequency, vibrations on a linear scale,
he studies the slow, steady, sometimes irregular
shaping of air. Song as phrase, composed notes,
long whistles, rapid trills, distinctive wails. He
slows the speed to see each moment of sound.
He learns that birds learn the local sounds, and
summer-born babies learn more. He learns that
day song and dawn song will differ, that there
are simple and complex songs. He learns to listen
and finds himself ready to hear the repertoire.
Meia Geddes lives in Boston as a writer, artist, and librarian at the Boston Public Library. She is the author of THE LITTLE QUEEN and LOVE LETTERS TO THE WORLD. She holds a BA from Brown University and MS from Simmons University, and is an MFA candidate and Teaching Fellow at University of Massachusetts – Boston. A Fulbright scholar, she has also received funding from the American Library Association and Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. She is a member of the New England Book Artists and founder of the small press and literary journal, Poetose.
Josephine Florens is a Ukrainian artist based in Germany. Her paintings explore identity, memory, and resilience through expressive color and symbolic form. Exhibited internationally, her works have appeared in journals and collections across Europe and North America.
