Louise Cary Barden

Autumn Song

In the trees a mad flurry of warblers –
Cape May, Tennessee, Black-and White, Chestnut-Sided–
spring colors gone drab for winter. Their beaks
work the last leaves. No singing now.

Cape May, Tennessee, Black-and White, Chestnut-Sided
dart here and there through grey branches
to work the last leaves. No singing now.
They come zigzagging down,

dart here and there through grey branches
like snowflakes already covering peaks in Wyoming.
They come zigzagging down,
whirling wings and brown feathers over the ground

like snowflakes already covering peaks in Wyoming.
I want to fly north where the world glitters white,
whirl wings and brown feathers over the ground
to hear fresh Arctic wind singing now.

I want to fly north where the world glitters white,
away from spring colors gone drab for winter,
to hear fresh Arctic wind singing now
in the trees like a flurry of warblers.

Louise Cary Barden’s poetry has won the Calyx Lois Cranston Prize, Oregon Poetry Association award, the Harperprints chapbook competition, and others. Her poems have appeared in such journals as Timberline, humana obscura and Cathexis Northwest. She is a self-avowed tree-hugger whose career indecisiveness has taken her from teaching college English to writing advertising and editorial copy and managing marketing programs. In 2017 she settled in Oregon after many years in North Carolina.