Here are some of the poems received during the 2020 virtual bird festival. Amazing!
Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
It’s starting to get cold,
I wish I was with you.
-G.F.
Aloha, echoes!
Calling of the ocean is reflected in the eyes
Wind carries whispers with each flight
Forests have the stories buried deep in its heart
Soul blooms to see the Hawaiin sight
Full of calls of the lively birds
Piercing the ear like a melody
Never to be forgotten
This feeling is like a weapon in itself
For taking the road alone in life
Aloha, echoes!
-S.K.
Seeing a Hawaiian owl, makes me howl
Finding a white tern, eases my concern
For the Zebra dove, I send my love
-K.A.
Lovely ‘I’iwi
Following blooms of nectar
How I long to see
-V.L.
Enduring love pairs
Great example for the world
Nevermind gender
-L.R.
Beautiful Nene
Loves Red Ohelo Berries
Soft Fuzzy Goslings
-D.L.
Walking the woods,
Scanning the seas,
Many birds are new to me!
-P.S.
The Apapane so beautiful and red by the ōhia Lehua they sing a mele in the hawaiian forest mist, the beautiful red Apapane sings for me I close my eyes to take in this melody.
-D.S.
Hunting for dinner
Tiny brown elepaio
Peck, peck, peck, pecking.
-M.A.
I love watching birds
Bird watching on Kauai
is the best of all
-L.K.
Ah ~ The birds of Hawaii, in all their splendor
It matters not their gender
-J.T.
I saw Apapanes in a tree
and realized what it was to be free
-D.P.
Birding with a toddler seems implausible
Keeping him quiet for a minute is quite impossible
His three year old voice is heard through the forest
But the ʻelepaio still flits by to explore us
My young ornithologist isn’t trained yet
But in 30 years, I’m sure he’ll be the best one yet
-J.W.
Elapaio
and Omao
Palila
and Akepa
Iiwi
and Amakihi
All the beautiful native birds in Hawaii
May not live for your grandkids to see-e
Unless we help them
By saving their land
-J.C.
Walking in Hawaii
Looking in Hawaii
Birding only Hawaii!
-K.C.
Wandering tattler, tell me your tales
You sing as you fly beyond the distant boat sails
As the honu passes my feet and the mynas hop along
At Carlsmith beach I listen to your sweet sea bird song
Your refreshing candor as you rock on your stilts
Ill watch you forever until the sea almond leaves wilt
-J.B.
‘Elepaio
Stillness on the Kīpukapuaulu trail
Oh!
Call notes
Inquisitive gaze
Skyward tail
Earthward perch
Universal connection
-J.K.
Hakalau
Joy is a sunny day in Hakalau!
Iiwi calling from the trees.
There’s Creeper, Akepa, and Akiapola’au,
But more common are Elapaio and Omao.
Amakihi are twittering, the Apapane sings,
I want to see them all,
I can hear them softly call,
Then we’ll look for other things!
-L.B.
Birding Hawaii is so far away
And I must stay home and help make hay
-M.F.
In my dream you were placed in my hand
Yellow as the sun and soft feathers so light
Your curved beak singing ancient songs
Closing your eyes you rested
-M.C.
Koa’e kea
graceful caldera glider
elegant live fossil
-J.S.
The islands beckon
Glistening wings of wonder
Make my spirit fly
-M.R.
The Ae’o certainly likes to make a fuss…
saying “ke, ke, ke” when it sees a must,
When the Turnstone beside it catches a fish
the Ae’o thinks it is just what it would wish
“Come here, Akekeke”
-A.R.
A paradise far out to sea
With diversity high in the trees
Nowhere else on earth are found
The honey creepers that abound!
-M.C.
Goonie bird soaring
Belly full of plastic trash
Feeding young-dead chick
How sad.
-S.P.
A million wing beats,
A thousand updrafts,
Wind and Sun,
Held my ancestors aloft.
Away,
Away,
Away from their homes,
they knew.
Towards,
Towards,
Towards someplace not entirely known,
New.
This land,
Now claimed us as home,
Hawaiʻi.
With softness and sharpness,
This landscape lives with us,
Grows with us.
Generations of ancestors,
Finding their bills,
Curling.
Splitting.
Changing.
Finding intimacy with our home.
Explosions of color,
Radiating off ourselves,
Dancing in the colorful forests,
Sharing our voices singing of joy.
Our cousins,
Along the shores,
Along the bluffs,
Dancing their own dance,
With wind, waves, and sand.
We welcome you,
To Dance too.
Dancing together.
For now.
Forever.
-C.K.
Have you heard of the Akohekohe?
They are inhabitants of Maui only
They sport silvery chest feathers like snowflakes
And orange eyepatches like pumpkin pancakes
But best of all, the thing that makes them fit their gluk-gluk-gluk call
Is the pillowy poof Pom-Pom ball
It’s ridiculous and silly
But makes them the cutest Hawaii bird of all.
-N.C.
How I love to see
My feathered friends flying high
While I cheer below
-A.M.
‘Ua‘u
‘Ua‘u
You once darkened the Hawaiian skies
searching over deep waters
for squid to feed your downy young
fattening until they grew
to twice the size of adults
and then those fledglings
winging and weaving and rollercoastering
used the stars to navigate the open seas
just as the ancient mariners
who once called Hawaii home
We’ve invaded your burrows —
where your single egg was hidden
in a rocky crevice and we could hear
a loud ‘ua’u ‘ua’u
the plaintive night cry
for a parent to arrive with a bounty
from thousands of miles away —
in ancient days we hunted you
and now have unwittingly unleashed
cats and wild pigs, mongooses and rats
to destroy your tender young
and our city lights disorienting
downing your young navigators
So ‘Ua‘u
You who once darkened the skies
have become so endangered
Now some of you live
monitored by aviculturists and bird-caring volunteers
will our 21st century be your time of recovery?
the time when humans protected you
helicoptered 87 chicks away from danger
built nest special nest boxes
and lovingly fed each one by hand
behind a fine mesh stainless steel fence
predator-proof and safe
In this sad year of 2020
one of your young has now returned
to a new home in a cradle of safety
at Nihoku in the Kilauea Point Refuge
And will more arrive?
And will they mate?
And will we learn with joy
that it is not too late …
-K.A.
Home.
Waiting for the molt’s end.
Does the curlew dream
of flying?
-J.T.
I would love to see an I’iwi
Enjoying a juicy kiwi.
-S.A.
Sun of Hawaii, white shimmering seabirds
Golden plovers standing at six feet apart
The ocean coughing up plastic
The world cry’s for our children
-K.W.
The birds of Hawai’i
How sweet it will be
On my visit next Spring
if their beauty I see!
-L.K.
Birdsongs everywhere in the trees
Our guide says i’iwi, aki,’omao, elepaio, more akis
Where? Where? What’d he say?
Red flash! ‘apapane?
Binoculars whipping ‘round
…think I’ll just enjoy the sound
-G.A.
I’iwi
Bright honeycreeper
Dancing in Ohi’a trees
Keeping me spellbound.
-P.B.
Thick curtain of green.
An explosion of scarlet.
It is I’iwi.
-E.T.
Foraging finch, led amiss.
Madescent billows roared, as clouds enshroud
And a sudden cascade coalesced
With a well-timed jet stream
& menacing westerly wind.
It’s a monsoon, pitch and roll!
Months spent sifting unseen white sand.
Hawaiian honeycreepers make the case—
If a place is a possibility: something can exist in it.
-A.R.
Morning sun rising,
ʻApapane among red,
ʻŌhiʻa at peace.
-B.S.
lele ‘ana
a lift of spirit
hope remains
embedded within
-D.S.
There is a petrel, a Hawaiian Petrel
Nesting in a burrow, a deep dark burrow
On the side of a mountain, the Mauna Loa mountain
High up on the Island of Hawai‘i
At night she flies around, in big round circles
Her mate flies with her, they circle together
Calling out their name, “‘Ua’u! ‘Ua’u!”
High up in the mountains of Hawai’i
She will lay one egg in their deep dark burrow
They’ll take turns sitting, warming their egg
When the chick hatches, they’ll feed it in big batches
High up in the mountains of Hawai’i
Out to sea they’ll fly, flying in the night,
Landing on the water to rest and feed after long flights
Will they return, return to nest again next season?
High up in the mountains of Hawai’i?
-C.LF
In the high forest’s emerald green,
a flash.
The scarlet ‘i’iwi arcs from ruby myrtle flower
Swoops and alights
To creep and forage
Floret by floret up the sapphire ‘ōpelu lobelia.
-S.A.
Look and see what you see.
Beautiful birds flitting around so happily!
-B.M.
Flash of yellow, red
Hawaiian honeycreepers
Jewels amongst the leaves
-C.A.
Many native birds
Once abundant in forests
Now are endangered
-A.T.
Pueo sat still.
Guardian! Now it is I
who will protect you.
-D.G.
Birds
I long to hear a bird’s song
Visit our forests and you will see
What a wonderful sound a bird’s song can be
-N.C.
