N is for Nightingale
This wonderful image of a nightingale singing at night was taken by Derek Thomas on Flikr.
The nightingale, although beautiful, is an unremarkable little bird, pale brown in colour.
It is seldom seen in the open, it is shy and tends to stay hidden in leafy trees and shrubbery.
A member of the thrush family, like all thrushes it sings beautifully.
However the male nightingale sings more sweetly than any other bird, and what is more has an extraordinary vocabulary of musicality – it never seems to repeat a phrase and its song is unpredictably gorgeous.
It also sings by day, and night, and because it is so quiet at night, its song seems even more mesmerising.
In the UK loss of habitat has meant falling numbers and the bird is now on the amber list for conservation.
The nightingale has been written about many times, forms the basis for myths, is mentioned in Homer’s The Odyssey and has been the subject of more admiring poems than any other bird since.
I am adding to that number – here is my nightingale poem below:
.
Nightingale
.
He is shaped
to sing,
beak and eyes wide
in the colourless night,
.
his song flows
into the listening
stillness,
.
each note
of unpredictable
gorgeousness
with no sky
in which to lose itself,
.
rolls its lines
to wrap the silence
and hold the listener
captive in the darkness,
.
he never seems
to know which songs to sing,
so sings them all.
.
Poem © Liz Brownlee
Here is a short video of the nightingale’s song on Youtube by Paul Hindess:
Photo © Derek Thomas
Information from Wiki.
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- Posted in: A-Z Blog Challenge 2015 ♦ Animals ♦ Poems ♦ Sustainability
- Tagged: animals, beauty, Europe, nature, nightingale, poem, poetry, science, song, sustainability, UK, wildlife
lizbrownlee - poet 
I am so glad you posted a video of the bird singing its little heart out. Its voice is so beautiful
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Your last lines always get me. Beautiful.
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Thanks, Ana, I’ve rewritten this poem about 100 times… still not quite happy, but relieved to know you like it!
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Ooo my favourite….
and what a start,he was shaped to sing 🙂
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Thank you!
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I love your poem… especially the notion of “unpredictable gorgeousness”… ❤
Thanks for visiting my blog!
Happy A to Z'ing!
Writer In Transit
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Thank you, Michelle!
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Wow, another cutie, a d such a beautiful voice.
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It is beautiful. You have some gorgeous voices yourself though, i have heard.
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I think I love the Willy Wag tail’s song, when he’s in my garden and singing I always call out “thank you Willy” for sharing his song, my family think Im nuts oh well!
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Beautiful poem! I love the last line – ‘sings them all.’ Much like how a writer must tell all their stories. Emily @ angelcat2014 from Sunny Side Up
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