Murmuration of Gretna Green Starlings

^{© Joan Thirlaway  “Ring Around the Moon”}

Starlings in Winter

Chunky and noisy,
but with stars in their black feathers,
they spring from the telephone wire

and instantly

they are acrobats
in the freezing wind.
And now, in the theater of air,
they swing over buildings,

dipping and rising;
they float like one stippled star
that opens,
becomes for a moment fragmented,

then closes again;
and you watch
and you try
but you simply can’t imagine

how they do it
with no articulated instruction, no pause,
only the silent confirmation
that they are this notable thing,

this wheel of many parts, that can rise and spin
over and over again,
full of gorgeous life.

 © Joan Thirlaway  Starling Murmuration with a long exposure.

Ah, world, what lessons you prepare for us,
even in the leafless winter,
even in the ashy city.
I am thinking now
of grief, and of getting past it;

I feel my boots
trying to leave the ground,
I feel my heart
pumping hard.  I want

to think again of dangerous and noble things.
I want to be light and frolicsome.
I want to be improbably beautiful and afraid of nothing,
as though I had wings.

~ Mary Oliver ~

(Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays)

About the photographer: These photos are used with the kind permission of Joan Thirlaway, a very talented amateur photographer living in Gilsland, one of the Hadrian's Wall villages, in the UK.
Film--Immense magical murmuration of Spectacular Starlings and a single falcon over Gretna, Scotland

(I wept after reading this poem and watching this film. I am not afraid to admit it. I hope that you enjoy it. Peace and Light ~ Noelle)

Murmuration of Gretna Green Starlings