TheBanyanTree: brown creeper

[Mike Pingleton]

I appreciate everyone's comments and Janice, what more could anyone ask of
a reader?  Thank you.

-Mike



On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 5:15 PM, Janice Money <pmon3694 at bigpond.net.au>wrote:

> How lovely!  So interesting that I had to google 'brown creeper' in the
> hope
> of finding a picture of this industrious little creature, not knowing if
> that was an actual name because, having only ever spent one night in the US
> and that at LA airport, I've never come across it before.  I found it,
> heard
> a recording of its "thin, reedy whistle", learned about its distribution
> and
> also its foraging habits.  That was all very informative but I enjoyed the
> elegance of your description much more.  Thank you.
>
> Janice
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: thebanyantree-bounces at lists.remsset.com
> [mailto:thebanyantree-bounces at lists.remsset.com] On Behalf Of Mike
> Pingleton
> Sent: Thursday, 5 December 2013 10:42 PM
> To: Banyan Tree
> Subject: TheBanyanTree: brown creeper
>
> your thin, reedy whistle
> is so often drowned,
> but this dim early hour the town lies
> dreaming, the crows still sleeping.
>
> I hope to catch you in silhouette
> if I am to catch you at all,
> the trees black fractals against
> a wall of tarnished clouds.
>
> six-legged are summer's children
> and summer has foundered in the
> sea of fallen leaves, but you know
> where hides the thrips and midges,
>
> the barley worm, the beetles in their
> bark crevices.  cloaked in the black
> you are ratcheting up the maple
> like a clock-work toy, a steeplejack
>
> on a hidden string.  hop then pause,
> tail propped, probing cracks and holes
> with your broom-straw beak, the
> source of your thin, reedy whistle.
>
> you weigh little more than moonlight;
> the ground's faint pull makes the tree
> a mere rough road.  where the trunk
> tapers you flutter-fall to earth,
>
> lift your head and start upward anew.
> this is your own hard way
> and your bird heart hammers;
> it is said just one thin spider
>
> earns you muscle and gristle enough
> to master another ascent.
> I whistle for my dogs, we three have
> our own dark trees to transit.
>
>
>