NIGHT BIRDS

NIGHTINGALES

Sing at night as well as during the day.

The nightingale is an important symbol for poets , and has taken on a number of symbolic connotations. Homer evokes the Nightingale in the Odyssey:

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Nightingale Song:
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and my poem 
NIGHTBIRDS

There must be trillions of us,

all with the same inclination to wake,

wandering through nights,

mulling over events, making plans,

thinking, panning for gold
within the special silence of cities
that never truly sleep, only keep on

differently rhythmic than daytime's pace.

Long lines of refugees
seeking safety this wide world round,
soldiers shouldering their assignments,

whole armies of cleaners cleaning,
watchers watching,

 service workers servicing,

doctors and nurses toiling at their tasks 

trying to save what is broken,

taxi drivers on regular fourteen hour shifts
shifting aching bones,

 train and bus personnel
taking us where we want to be,

truckers hauling all the things we think we need 

back and forth

crossing every land route.

Look, pilots are soaring above us.
Ships plod through the waters that surround us.
Listen, can you hear the hum
as enormous energies transfer 

from factories doing twenty-four-seven

just to keep from sinking under
 tidal floods of economic collapse?

The ice is melting.

Amazing

that some still find the energy for poetry,
 for dance, for art and play.

Astounding

that this has been so for all recorded time;

people caring for one another,
responding to beauty,
loving their lives.

 Life wants to live.

Doesn't it take your breath away? 

Doesn't it send shivers right through you?  

Isn't it almost unbearable 

to let it all in,

make room for everything,
for everyone.

Remember,
leave space in between,
for what we can not see is so vast,

"infinity" is insufficiently descriptive.

Here is where silence is a useful practice,

'surrender' becomes 'skillful means',

and happiness-

the habit that might be chosen.