Rhyme On Migratory Birds

MIGRATING BIRDS

I have listened for the beat

Of slow wings across the sea

In their strange retreat

From their foreign liberty

Come the birds from northern land

Where the Russian sleigh bells chime

From the hungry desert sands

Of a southern clime

Come the birds where eastern air

Pierced by lofty minaret
echoes far the Turkish prayer

Of a god we have half forget

In my garden I have strayed

Through the warm sweet days of spring