Two early poems, both quite repetitive: one that I am satisfied with, Brooding: one that still needs bashing into shape quite firmly, when I feel stronger. Feathers & Flying is a didactic poem - always hard to forge them successfully.

BROODING

Love sits immobile: the hen bird or the cock
Still as a statue, never a feather flutters;
In carven detail, whatever breezes rock
The dappling leaves, however the fresh wind mutters.

Unnoticed in the landscape, patient love
Alert, daylong, motionless at its work;
Warm, loving, unmoving, it broods above
Unyielding eggs, watchful till life shall jerk.

In stillness and in faith, giving what’s needed:
Warmth, and with it life, for the hidden chick.
The bright unblinking eye stares straight, unheeded;
Stillness and warmth, silence, to nurture the quick

-quick-quickening life that taps at last,
Pecking and struggling, straggly, no feather in place;
No peace, as it surges and seeks; idleness is past.
This life looks for liveliness, exploring its space;

Yet still, in danger or tiredness, gathered to rest,
Sheltering, loved, in stillness, under the warm breast.

FEATHERS

Feathers and flight: a double breakthrough!
Feathers or flying: which came first?
The air to conquer: develop and make new
Apparatus: new life-style to be nursed.

Flick! Flick! Flexing a quill against my thumb;
Willowy strength! Supple resistance to my push:
The lightweight strut of hollow horn,
The strands, combed perfectly, -- to ride the rush

And climb the batting air; bank and turn;
Ruler of the unseen element; every sweep
Hauling sky, reaching for space, churn
The eddying winds: home flutter or soaring leap.

A double breakthrough: feathers and flight!
Flying or feathers: which came first?
Strong and flexible, so warm and light:
Perfect comfort, perfect equipment, -- that burst

From the ground in soaring elegance;
Power and thrust ruling the sky;
Smaller cousins, in fluttering competence,
Chattering tumbles, the bushes flash by.

Back to the nest: devoted family fuss,
In trees or cliffs or mountains. Warm and soft,
The feathers defy the landscape, teaching us
Homely comfort, snug, after exploits aloft.

Feathers and flying, a double breakthrough!
Flight or feathers: which came first?
The air is conquered! And with this new
Apparatus, a whole life-style can be nursed.