http://www.wordnik.com/lists/poetrie-robin-redbreast.xml by Stanley Kunitz <br /> <br />It was the <a href="/words/dingiest">dingiest</a> bird <br />you ever saw, all the color <br />washed from him, as if <br />he had been standing in the rain, <br /><a href="/words/friendless">friendless</a> and stiff and cold, <br />since Eden went wrong. <br />In the house marked FOR SALE, <br />where nobody made a sound, <br />in the room where I lived <br />with an <a href="/words/empty">empty</a> page, I had heard <br />the squawking of the jays <br />under the wild persimmons <br /><a href="/words/tormenting">tormenting</a> him. <br />So I scooped him up <br />after they knocked him down, <br />in league with that <a href="/words/ounce of heart">ounce of heart</a> <br />pounding in my palm, <br />that dumb beak <a href="/words/gaping">gaping</a>. <br /><a href="/words/Poor">Poor</a> thing! Poor <a href="/words/foolish">foolish</a> life! <br /><a href="/words/without">without</a> sense enough to stop <br />running in <a href="/words/desperate">desperate</a> circles, <br />needing my lucky help <br />to toss him back to his element. <br />But when I held him high, <br /><a href="/words/fear">fear</a> <a href="/words/clutched">clutched</a> my hand, <br />for through the hole in his head, <br />cut <a href="/words/whistle-clean">whistle-clean</a>... <br />through the old dried wound <br />between his eyes <br />where the hunter's brand <br />had tunneled out his wits... <br />I caught the <a href="/words/cold">cold</a> flash of the blue <br /><a href="/words/unappeasable">unappeasable</a> sky. http://www.wordnik.com http://www.wordnik.com/words/clutched Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:54:30 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/clutched http://www.wordnik.com/words/cold Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:51:40 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/cold http://www.wordnik.com/words/unappeasable Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:50:23 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/unappeasable http://www.wordnik.com/words/whistle-clean Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:50:00 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/whistle-clean http://www.wordnik.com/words/fear Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:49:54 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/fear http://www.wordnik.com/words/desperate Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:49:51 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/desperate http://www.wordnik.com/words/without Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:49:46 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/without http://www.wordnik.com/words/foolish Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:49:42 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/foolish http://www.wordnik.com/words/poor Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:49:35 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/poor http://www.wordnik.com/words/gaping Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:49:29 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/gaping http://www.wordnik.com/words/tormenting Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:49:20 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/tormenting http://www.wordnik.com/words/empty Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:49:15 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/empty http://www.wordnik.com/words/friendless Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:49:10 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/friendless http://www.wordnik.com/words/dingiest Fri, 02 Mar 2007 05:49:02 +0000 http://www.wordnik.com/words/dingiest