Happy New Year and welcome to Poetry Friday!
Mary Lee has the roundup today at A(nother) Year of Reading where she shares wisdom from the Land of Grammar and lots more poetry goodness.
If you’re familiar with The Comfort of Crows by Margaret Renkle, then you probably know the importance of a first bird sighting in the new year.
According to birding tradition, the first bird you see on the first day
of the new year sets the tone for your next twelve months. (p. 5)
The book is divided into seasons with an entry for each week. I bought the book in the spring, so that’s where I jumped in, devouring each luscious word and idea week to week. But I also read what I missed and am now rereading the whole book in order. I’ll admit, I was as excited as a kid on Christmas morning with the anticipation of my first bird sighting on January 1st. I see fewer birds this time of year, but there are cardinals, finches, woodpeckers, wrens, and sparrows that visit regularly. Imagine my joy when the first bird I saw was a female bluebird, soon joined by her partner.
I researched all the symbolic and spiritual meanings connected with bluebirds, and there are many – happiness, renewal, harmony, hope. Bluebirds can also be a reminder to stay positive and live authentically. That’s what I want to focus on and use along with my OLW for 2025 – light.
First Bird: A Cherita for the New Year
I raised the binoculars, heart aflutter
a small miracle
perched on the birdhouse roof
a bluebird to guide me through the year
with harmony and hope
joy and light
Draft, RoseCappelli2025
My daughter gave me Renkle’s companion journal Leaf, Cloud, Crow for Christmas. I’m looking forward to filling it with small poems and thoughts. So maybe you’ll hear more about my bluebird. By the way, I named her Evie, and the pair returned today.
Mary Lee has the roundup today at A(nother) Year of Reading where she shares wisdom from the Land of Grammar and lots more poetry goodness.
Imagine the Possibilities 
Oh my gosh, Rose! I wrote about the same thing! My post won’t be up till tomorrow –but you’ll see – lol!
I so love that you name your birds!
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Like minds. Looking forward to reading it.
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I love that you and Patricia posted about the same passage from Renkl’s book!! I just bought her LATE MIGRATIONS book and will see if I feel the same way about it as I felt about THE COMFORT OF CROWS. I’m not into birds, but I do think it’s cool that a bluebird is your first bird of the year. Bluebirds scare me less than the Cooper’s Hawk that visited me! 🙂
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My daughter gave me The Comfort of Crows for Christmas. My first bird was a mockingbird but my second was a great white egret. I read about the first bird on Molly’s SOL post. Your poem offers the hope of a bluebird. I remember seeing one, the only one I’ve ever seen, on Christmas morning years ago. Happy New Year.
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Would love to see a great white egret! I think you will enjoy The Comfort of Crows, Margaret.
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I love this, Rose! My first bird this year was a Black Kite. Pretty ordinary, as it’s one of the most common here, but they are so beautiful too. Maybe it means it will be a calm and uneventful year. That would be nice!
Yes, the bluebird is a “small miracle!”
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It’s like you received a huge smile on the year’s first day, Rose! What a lovely beginning poem to start the year, with, as you wrote, “with harmony and hope/
joy and light”. Happy New Year!
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Wow! A bluebird as first-bird! What a premonition for good things to come!
Also, Margaret Renkl. Be still my heart. I can’t get enough of her writing. I’ve started Late Migrations and had to buy a copy of In the Company of Crows, which ranks up there for me with Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Braiding Sweetgrass.
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I have Late Migrations on my wish list. Her writing is so beautiful!
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This is delightful– thank you for sharing! The Comfort of Crows is currently sitting on my TBR bookshelf… this makes me even more excited to read it!
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I just know you will like it, Sarah. It’s full of wonderful words and thoughts, inspiration and joy.
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oooooh! How neat that you spotted a bluebird first. They are so sweet. I love them. This bird is such a beautiful accompaniment to light. Thank you for this lovely and hope-filled post. I look forward to what you share from this great beginning of the year. Happy New Year!
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Thanks, Linda. Same to you!
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Rose, it must have been a wonderful sight to see your bluebird Evie. I am sad to say that I did not see any birds. May the light of the season bring you joy. These lines are full of possibilities for 2025.
with harmony and hope
joy and light
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Thank you, Carol.
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Oh, I love this!!! Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post about first of the year birds (mine was a tufted titmouse). By chance, I started reading Margaret Renkl’s book the next morning. I had no idea her book was based around the “First of the Year” bird tradition! It was such a happy coincidence, and now I’m thrilled to read about you doing the same and seeing…BLUEBIRDS! What a lovely way to begin the year. Your cherita is as delightful as those birds, filled with hope and light. Happy New Year, Rose!
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Thanks, Molly! Happy New Year!
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Rose, I love that you’ll be working through the companion book this year! And a bluebird is always a special sighting. My first bird was a male cardinal, which always makes me happy! xo
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We have a lot of cardinals, so I was thinking that would be my first bird which would have been just fine. I love that pop of red when the world is gray and white.
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Oh, Rose! Thanks for sharing these books! They sound right up my alley. I’m still at my Dad’s and he has a bird feeder right outside the kitchen windows. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice the first bird of the year but have been seeing cardinals, bluejays, chickadees, woodpeckers, and mourning doves. He also has a pond where geese and ducks and a sole heron visit when it is not ice covered. I started a poem about the geese today – although herons are among my favorite birds. Happy New Year. Light is a great OLW for 2025. So symbolic.
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Thank you, Carol! Maybe it doesn’t have to be the actual first, but more like one of the first. Pick your favorite and go with it.
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The Comfort of Crows is on my TBR, Rose. Thanks for the latest nudge to read it. 🙂
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I think you will enjoy it, Karen.
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Your delight in your first bird is catching, Rose! I’m so glad you have found something inspiring in my family’s tradition of Yuletide candle-lighting. I’ll email you all the words so they’re easier to read. Enjoy all the birds (a common sighting among the flora and fauna on our Yuletide evergreen tree) and all the gifts of the human spirit!
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Thank you, Heidi!
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Rose, how fun to imagine you with your journals, poeming, and observing Evie and others this year. Here’s to harmony, hope, joy and light to fill your 2025.
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Thanks, Denise.
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