The Aves of Morning by Caroline Wellman

The Aves of Morning
by Caroline Wellman

In Spanish, the birds become prayers,
whatever they lift, their trills, their wings, 
a soaring novena. Consider

the house finch’s handful of notes, the bright
delighted laugh of a child floated out
from the dogwood blossoms. Consider

the redwing who chimes from the fence 
in the rain, despite the trees razed behind it, 
the creek filled with dirt. Consider
 
the blue jay’s soft tooleelee, tooleelee
tooleelee belled from the sumac, as if 
for a consecration, the crow’s rough

exultet in the pine, the cardinal’s
sweet clips, quick snips of floral shears
shaping new and colorful blooms. 

When night becomes my Gethsemani, 
laying me bare so I wake to no hope,
the cold dark all around me, their matins 

bring back the glory of this world 
before I see the least splinter of light, 
long before dawn builds its vast cathedral. 

Hear Caroline Wellman recite the poem on the Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast:

Caroline Wellman earned degrees in writing and literature from the University of Arkansas. Her poetry collection Presences was published by Parallel Press in 2014. Her recent work has appeared in AfterHours, Muddy River Poetry Review, Peatsmoke, and Seashores haiku journal. She is the winner of the 2022 Anthology Poetry Award and the 2023 Mary Blinn Poetry Prize. She previously taught writing and literature at colleges in the midwest and south. Last fall she taught beginning journalism to local middle school students; this fall she will teach them creative writing. She works for the US Postal Service in Illinois. Facebook:@carolinerwellman