Update: Both Georgian Dems win! We have the Senate! Woot woot! Aminals all over the world are celebrating! Now we just need to survive the “ceremonial” counting of Biden’s votes today and maybe into tomorrow, then it’s party time!
We’re back, for better or worse! And it will be better for the most part, because it’s a New Year with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in it! So welcome back to the odd and whimsical poetery of the Peeps related to holidaze. Let’s investigate what today is, because we need all the holidaze we can celebrate, right? Maybe this year we’ll feel a little less dazed.
Lately, every day seems to be many holidays! Which is good, because we all have our favorites. So I will pick out one or two, and you can click the link above if you’re curious about the rest. This is an Open Thread, so please feel free to add your favorite pomes and photoes and holidaze for today in the Comments!
Today is foremost on our minds because of the Senate race in Georgia. Hmm, Georgia on our minds, seems like I’ve heard that somewhere before…. But anyway, results may not be available until very late tonight, so we’ll ignore that for now after a short prayer for candidates Ossoff and Warnock.
Today is National Bird Day!
Whilst we’re ordinarily crazy about pooties and woozles, this does not eliminate the occasional nod to our feathered friends! And today is their day!
how to observe:
You can take part in the day in numerous ways. If you want a bird, adopt a displaced bird instead of one from a pet store, and only do it if you can make a lifetime care commitment. Before adopting a bird such as a parrot, make sure you think about their needs. This will help stop more bird displacement in the future. You could help raise the demand for birds in the wild, instead of helping to raise the demand for birds as pets. Support conservation efforts to help increase ecotourism, which will allow more birds will be seen in the wild. It is fitting to spend the day seeing wild birds yourself, whether they be exotic or not. Check to see if pet stores in your community sell birds. If they do, talk to someone at the store, organize a peaceful protest, or write a letter to a newspaper. You could also check if national pet stores sell birds and contact them as well. Teach children about the plight of captive birds by sharing with them the book Lucky. Supporting well regarded bird rescues and sanctuaries is another way to observe the day, and The Avian Welfare Coalition also recommends supporting organizations such as the Indonesian Parrot Project, One Earth Conservation, and Hatched to Fly Free. Visit the National Bird Day Facebook page and Avian Welfare Coalition website for more information.
the nightingale
by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1798)
[For some reason, classical bird poems tend toward the melancholy — and this is very long! — so I’ll pick out some favorite parts. Please click the link if you’d like to read all.]
No cloud, no relique of the sunken day
Distinguishes the West, no long thin slip
Of sullen light, no obscure trembling hues.
Come, we will rest on this old mossy bridge!
You see the glimmer of the stream beneath,
But hear no murmuring: it flows silently.
O'er its soft bed of verdure. All is still.
A balmy night! and though the stars be dim,
Yet let us think upon the vernal showers
That gladden the green earth, and we shall find
A pleasure in the dimness of the stars.
And hark! the Nightingale begins its song,
'Most musical, most melancholy' bird!
A melancholy bird? Oh! idle thought!
In Nature there is nothing melancholy.
-skip-
My Friend, and thou, our Sister! we have learnt
A different lore: we may not thus profane
Nature's sweet voices, always full of love
And joyance! 'Tis the merry Nightingale
That crowds and hurries, and precipitates
With fast thick warble his delicious notes,
As he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul
Of all its music!
-skip-
Never elsewhere in one place I knew
So many nightingales; and far and near,
In wood and thicket, over the wide grove,
They answer and provoke each other's song,
With skirmish and capricious passagings,
And murmurs musical and swift jug jug,
And one low piping sound more sweet than all
Stirring the air with such a harmony,
That should you close your eyes, you might almost
Forget it was not day! On moonlight bushes,
Whose dewy leaflets are but half-disclosed,
You may perchance behold them on the twigs,
Their bright, bright eyes, their eyes both bright and full,
Glistening, while many a glow-worm in the shade
Lights up her love-torch.
-skip-
The moon
Emerging, hath awakened earth and sky
With one sensation, and those wakeful birds
Have all burst forth in choral minstrelsy,
As if some sudden gale had swept at once
A hundred airy harps! ...
Many a nightingale perch giddily
On blossomy twig still swinging from the breeze,
And to that motion tune his wanton song
Like tipsy Joy that reels with tossing head.
Farewell! O Warbler! till tomorrow eve,
And you, my friends! farewell, a short farewell!
We have been loitering long and pleasantly,
And now for our dear homes.
-skip-
Once more, farewell,
Sweet Nightingale! once more, my friends! farewell.
