I love goldfinches for two main reasons. 1: yellow. 2: Mary Oliver and her poem “Invitation” that I’ve posted here about a hundred times so I’ll spare you this one time on this one blog post.
So imagine my delight to find another goldfinch poem by another poet with yet another reason to put them in my paintings, another reason to let them flit around in my head bringing peace to my dreams, hopes, worries, and fears. In this poem, they feast on thorns, their yellow bodies juxtaposed to the mud and muck.
“I learned that they were a symbol of resurrection/ Of course they were.”
By Ada Limón
There were two that hung and hovered
by the mud puddle and the musk thistle.
Flitting from one splintered fence post
to another, bathing in the rainwater’s glint
like it was a mirror to some other universe
where things were more acceptable, easier
than the place I lived. I’d watch for them:
the bright peacocking male, the low-watt
female, on each morning walk, days spent
digging for some sort of elusive answer
to the question my curving figure made.
Later, I learned that they were a symbol
of resurrection. Of course they were,
my two yellow-winged twins feasting
on thorns and liking it.
January 5, 2022
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One Response
Wonderful poem! And I’m very much captivated by these portraits. For lots of reasons. Chiefly I think for the colors and also the idea behind them, as I interpret it.