their lives seem endless quarrels
with each other and anything else
that moves or doesn\u2019t.
The fights for nesting sites
we can understand,
but their puzzling,
spectacular ring fights\u2014
cackling, off-key parodies
of West Side Story<\/em>\u2014
two combatants encircled
by raucous, bird-brained shriekers\u2014
have no point that we can see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Their jokes, too, are absurdities\u2014
one-bird routines, the comedian
picking up something silly
and dancing around clumsily
like a drunken uncle at a wedding\u2014
while the other mynahs laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They are too much like us in every way,
and we despise them for it,
but, when light lowers in the largest trees,
they gather to themselves a dusky music
and make of their crabbed, separate voices
a higher harmony
that floats entirely above us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bulbuls at the Museum<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Vivid bulbuls
flit and settle
and flit again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They do not know
that they are nesting
in a museum<\/p>\n\n\n\n
or that their homing
to the hybrid red
bougainvillea\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
whose gnarled trunk
has climbed the courtyard wall
so long it has become a tree\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n
mimics
a hanging scroll
by Hoitsu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Heron at Dusk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
The heron at dusk is motionless\u2014
a dark rock perched on a dark rock\u2014
above the tide pool
where it will feed soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a mild twist of torso
its gun-dark beak cleaves sky and sea,
becoming a sudden machine,
a nightmare piston.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mostly I see them waiting singly,
singing sometimes a solitary distain,
a terrible patience,
a hollow sound at dusk, a bell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/vice-versa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/joe-1-743x1024.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe most recent of Joseph Stanton\u2019s books of poems is Lifelines: Poems for Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper.<\/em> His ninth book of poems, Kaaterskill Cove, <\/em>is forthcoming in 2025. His poems have appeared in Poetry, New Letters, Ekphrasis, Antioch Review, Harvard Review, New York Quarterly, Bamboo Ridge,<\/em> and many other magazines. He frequently collaborates with other poets, visual artists, playwrights, and composers. He occasionally teaches poetry workshops, such as the “Starting with Art” workshops he has taught at Poets House (in New York City) and at the Honolulu Museum of Art. He is a Professor Emeritus at UH-Manoa, where he taught in the American Studies and Art History programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prevailing Winds<\/a><\/em> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seven Poems Island Weather We can spot what\u2019s coming to us herefrom a long way off.We can watch it glide downthe many faces of the cliffs, shading them differentdarknesses of green,moving toward us like a sorrow\u2014a gently sad, blue-gray whisper of rain,a soft, shimmery nimbusthat lifts and pushes ustoward what we\u2019ve learned to expect. It … <\/p>\n
A Field Guide to the Wildlife of Suburban O\u2018ahu<\/a><\/em>
Lifelines: Poems for Winslow Homer and Edward Hopper<\/a><\/em>
“The Poetry of Joseph Stanton: Words Meet Images”<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n