“I want to sing like the birds sing,

not worrying about who hears or what they think.” 
― Jalaluddin Rumi

An interesting idea to contemplate, on a day when I am preparing a sheaf of poems to bring to work on in a writer's retreat: The unselfconscious music a bird makes from her perch - to be heard by all who listen. If a poet is a bird, if a poem is her song, if her spirit is in her words on paper, flight is how words reach the eyes of a reader.

When I am leading a writing workshop, every word a woman has just written is one I am straining to hear. I am listening for the beauty of her song. But when I'm participating in a poetry critique group, crafting my poems with others who are crafting their poems, then I am a different kind of bird, I am a self-conscious bird who is trying very hard to lose herself in her song. Trying very hard to find the song that will please the listener who longs to hear it.

All photos and text copyright Kelly DuMar