"Hummingbird" by Robin Becker

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 21, 2017   Hummingbird   Robin Becker

I love the whir of the creature come to visit the pink flowers in the hanging basket as she does   most August mornings, hours away from starvation to store enough energy to survive overnight. The Aztecs saw the refraction of incident light on wings as resurrection of fallen warriors. In autumn, when daylight decreases they double their body weight to survive the flight across the Gulf of Mexico.   On next-to-nothing my mother flew for 85 years; after her death she hovered, a bird of bones and air.            Copyright © 2017 Robin Becker. Used with permission of the author. About This Poem   "Inhabiting both earth and sky, birds serve, in many traditions, as emissaries from the afterlife, as they do in this poem. Here, I sought to combine the science of hummingbird metabolism, the cultural history of hummingbird mythology, and the personal history I associate with the bird. The words 'visit,' 'resurrection' and 'hover' contribute to the 'otherworldly' feeling hummingbirds generate in many who observe them." —Robin Becker   Robin Becker is the author of The Black Bear Inside Me, forthcoming from the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2018. Becker lives in central Pennsylvania and summers in rural New Hampshire.     Poetry by Becker   Tiger Heron (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014) "Let Birds" by Linda Gregg "Flesh" by Joan Larkin ""Also Birds" [excerpt]" by Dawn Lundy Martin Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038

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