black-capped chickadee (Keulemans)‘The Spring Has Come’ and Other Poems by Alan Steinle The Society May 14, 2025 Beauty, Poetry, Rondeau 18 Comments . The Spring Has Come The mating call of the black-capped chickadee (a North American songbird) sounds like “Hey, Sweetie!” “Hey, Sweetie!”—this is what you say.Small chickadee, it is your wayto signal interest in your mate.You sing and chase—and often wait—until she deigns to make your day. A furtive “cheep,” and friends will staywell hidden from a bird of prey.When skies are clear, your life is great:___“Hey, Sweetie!” Though studies now are underway,the birders feel, with sharp dismay,that what they’ve learned has little weight,for all their efforts to translateresulted in just one cliché:___“Hey, Sweetie!” . . Nature’s Paradox So many people feel a peace of mindwhen resting near a forest, stream, or hill,for, lying there at ease, they can unwind,with senses bathed in sounds and thoughts now still. We cannot find another place like this:a place where all the creatures harmonize,a place in which the mind is filled with bliss,a place that people would immortalize. But then a voice arises from the past.It says that nature’s “red in tooth and claw.”The bliss that’s felt in nature cannot last.Consuming others is a basic law. The harmony is there, and then it’s gone.Perhaps we see just what we focus on. . . Remember This —from my childhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma Our yard contained a group of trees—the perfect place to skin my kneeswhen I was still a growing boy,when I could climb and still enjoythe out-of-doors in early May,and I had put my books away. An oak tree held a brownish box,a birdhouse made with wooden blocks.The open door was just the sizefor smaller birds to claim the prize.The empty house was there for free,and soon a sprightly chickadeehad claimed the box as her own house,and with her mate, her helpful spouse,she wove a grassy nest up there.They carried fibers through the airuntil there was a nest inside,where future fledglings could abideuntil they’d grown enough to flyinto the endless azure sky. I climbed a nearby tree beforethe fledglings dared to leave the door.The parent birds were bringing foodto fill their quickly-growing brood.The partners sang a cheerful songof gladness as they flew along.So glad were they to be alive,they didn’t worry, stress, or strive.Though working hard, they still knew howto live within the joy of now.They didn’t think about the pastor wonder if their joy would last. Contagious was their joy to be,and what they felt soon came to me.As I began to feel their bliss,a thought arose: Remember this! . . Alan Steinle, originally from Oklahoma, is a writer, editor, and translator. You can find many of his Spanish translations here. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. ***Read Our Comments Policy Here*** 18 Responses Roy Eugene Peterson May 14, 2025 These poems are compelling nature poetry with impactful visions that stir the soul. I had relatives living in Tulsa, the Coburns, and remember enjoying the environs there as a teen when we would stop there. Your grasp of the lives of birds is beautifully on display in the first and last ones. All three poems brought me peaceful thoughts and have my admiration. Reply Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 Thank you. I value peace, and if my poems had that effect on someone, maybe I should keep writing. Tom Coburn was a senator from Oklahoma. Are your relatives related to him? Reply fred schueler May 14, 2025 In bishops Mills, Ontario, we hear the first Chickadee ‘feebee’ (=’sweetie’) calls around the winter solstice, though they are a lot more frequent now. Reply Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 Good to hear. I think a lot of people like the relatively tame chickadees. I miss seeing cardinals where I live now. Reply Yael May 14, 2025 I enjoyed reading these sweet nature poems. Each one is fun to contemplate at it’s own scale. Starting with birds at 8 beats or syllables per line, then zooming out to a general view of people in nature and expanding to 10 beats per line, then zooming into the past of the poet himself in nature, and back to only 8 beats per line but with more than twice as many lines as the first two. It’s a nice romp through space and time, with a consistent focus on nature observation. Reply Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 I’m glad you enjoyed them. Usually, the beats in a line refer to the stressed syllables, so an 8-syllable line in iambic tetrameter would normally have 4 beats, and iambic pentameter would normally have 5 beats. Reply Yael May 18, 2025 Great to know, thank you for explaining this technical detail; I had no idea that this is how beats are counted in a poem. Cheryl A Corey May 15, 2025 “to live within the joy of now” is indeed something to remember. Reply Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 Yes it is. Now is the only time we can do or feel anything. Our wandering minds often forget that. Birds are probably better at enjoying the moment than are most humans. Reply Alan Steinle May 15, 2025 Thanks for your comments. In case you are interested, here is an informative video on YouTube about black-capped chickadee calls: https://youtu.be/8QB4pxjEQF4 Reply Margaret Coats May 15, 2025 Alan, you are absolutely right about “Nature’s Paradox.” It’s not that observers go away with what they brought; rather, some are able to experience abundance, while others depart simply self-satisfied. “The Spring Has Come” deserves a place among my additions to “The Poetry of Birds.” You may already know of this British book that catalogues the best bird poems in English by species. It does include some kinds of birds that live only outside Britain. Your rondeau makes excellent use of form, too; a double prize-winner! And “Remember This” would fit into the bird anthology’s category of “Day Out” poems, also increasing the book’s proportion of good formal verse. Reply Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 I hadn’t heard of that book before. Do you have a favorite poem in it? My grandmother was an avid bird watcher and traveled just to see new types of birds. I’m more of a backyard nature enthusiast. Reply Margaret Coats May 16, 2025 Thanks for asking, Alan. I don’t recall a favorite poem from the book, and I don’t have it available at the moment. I know I had marked some as good, but for now, let me give you my favorite from Classical Poets, namely, Peter Hartley’s “Blackbird” https://classicalpoets.org/2021/06/the-blackbird-by-peter-hartley/ Reply Paul A. Freeman May 15, 2025 Once I got WC Fields out of my mind, I enjoyed your ‘chickadee’ rondeau. Alan. I particularly liked the humour in the middle stanza. I also liked the message in Nature’s Paradox. It got me thinking about how we dress nature up and look at it through rose-tinted glasses while the fox is hunting the rabbit, and the spider’s trapping the fly. Alas, WC Fields returned in Remember This, but I worked my way through it. I loved this last poem. It’s so jaunty and positive, where similar poems would have become maudlin. The last line is almost a twist considering the reader is expecting the narrator to be looking back in sadness, but is actually looking forward, with a positive life memory. I hope that makes sense. Reply Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 Thanks for telling me how the last poem seemed to have a twist. When I wrote the poem, I had the ending in mind from the beginning, so it seems pretty straightforward to me. It is interesting to hear other people’s reactions. Some people idealize nature, while others just think of it as a wild and inhospitable place. I pity those who have never had any good experiences in nature. Reply Alan Steinle May 15, 2025 In my opinion, “The Spring Has Come” goes well with my poems “The Night Has Come” and “Nature’s Paradox.” The first two are a sort of yin-yang of birds. Or yang-yin, since yang is associated with the sun and light and yin is associated with the moon and night. Perhaps all human observations of nature are mediated by our individual mental outlooks, so we see our own emotions and thoughts (of joy, fear, light, darkness, etc.) looking back at us in nature. Thus, it is hard not to anthropomorphize nature. To be completely objective about nature, on the other hand, is to get even farther from nature, in my opinion, because it treats living things as objects or merely factually. Here is the yin poem that didn’t make the editorial cut. If I’m not allowed to add it here, someone can delete it. The Night Has Come The night has come, and I must fight to waken in the fading light. The sun, that tyrant of the day, has given half the world away unto the moon, now full and white. The glare is gone, to my delight, and now all things are in my sight. My time is brief—I can’t delay. The night has come. Nocturnal birds do not unite when hunger strikes and food is slight. When I discover hidden prey, I dive to earth—a lightning ray— and stun it with a crushing bite. The night has come. Reply Russel Winick May 17, 2025 Alan – I enjoyed all three of your poems, and in particular felt that the last line of “Remember This” was quite stunning and moving. Reply Alan Steinle May 17, 2025 Thanks for noting your impressions. I appreciate it. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Roy Eugene Peterson May 14, 2025 These poems are compelling nature poetry with impactful visions that stir the soul. I had relatives living in Tulsa, the Coburns, and remember enjoying the environs there as a teen when we would stop there. Your grasp of the lives of birds is beautifully on display in the first and last ones. All three poems brought me peaceful thoughts and have my admiration. Reply
Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 Thank you. I value peace, and if my poems had that effect on someone, maybe I should keep writing. Tom Coburn was a senator from Oklahoma. Are your relatives related to him? Reply
fred schueler May 14, 2025 In bishops Mills, Ontario, we hear the first Chickadee ‘feebee’ (=’sweetie’) calls around the winter solstice, though they are a lot more frequent now. Reply
Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 Good to hear. I think a lot of people like the relatively tame chickadees. I miss seeing cardinals where I live now. Reply
Yael May 14, 2025 I enjoyed reading these sweet nature poems. Each one is fun to contemplate at it’s own scale. Starting with birds at 8 beats or syllables per line, then zooming out to a general view of people in nature and expanding to 10 beats per line, then zooming into the past of the poet himself in nature, and back to only 8 beats per line but with more than twice as many lines as the first two. It’s a nice romp through space and time, with a consistent focus on nature observation. Reply
Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 I’m glad you enjoyed them. Usually, the beats in a line refer to the stressed syllables, so an 8-syllable line in iambic tetrameter would normally have 4 beats, and iambic pentameter would normally have 5 beats. Reply
Yael May 18, 2025 Great to know, thank you for explaining this technical detail; I had no idea that this is how beats are counted in a poem.
Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 Yes it is. Now is the only time we can do or feel anything. Our wandering minds often forget that. Birds are probably better at enjoying the moment than are most humans. Reply
Alan Steinle May 15, 2025 Thanks for your comments. In case you are interested, here is an informative video on YouTube about black-capped chickadee calls: https://youtu.be/8QB4pxjEQF4 Reply
Margaret Coats May 15, 2025 Alan, you are absolutely right about “Nature’s Paradox.” It’s not that observers go away with what they brought; rather, some are able to experience abundance, while others depart simply self-satisfied. “The Spring Has Come” deserves a place among my additions to “The Poetry of Birds.” You may already know of this British book that catalogues the best bird poems in English by species. It does include some kinds of birds that live only outside Britain. Your rondeau makes excellent use of form, too; a double prize-winner! And “Remember This” would fit into the bird anthology’s category of “Day Out” poems, also increasing the book’s proportion of good formal verse. Reply
Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 I hadn’t heard of that book before. Do you have a favorite poem in it? My grandmother was an avid bird watcher and traveled just to see new types of birds. I’m more of a backyard nature enthusiast. Reply
Margaret Coats May 16, 2025 Thanks for asking, Alan. I don’t recall a favorite poem from the book, and I don’t have it available at the moment. I know I had marked some as good, but for now, let me give you my favorite from Classical Poets, namely, Peter Hartley’s “Blackbird” https://classicalpoets.org/2021/06/the-blackbird-by-peter-hartley/ Reply
Paul A. Freeman May 15, 2025 Once I got WC Fields out of my mind, I enjoyed your ‘chickadee’ rondeau. Alan. I particularly liked the humour in the middle stanza. I also liked the message in Nature’s Paradox. It got me thinking about how we dress nature up and look at it through rose-tinted glasses while the fox is hunting the rabbit, and the spider’s trapping the fly. Alas, WC Fields returned in Remember This, but I worked my way through it. I loved this last poem. It’s so jaunty and positive, where similar poems would have become maudlin. The last line is almost a twist considering the reader is expecting the narrator to be looking back in sadness, but is actually looking forward, with a positive life memory. I hope that makes sense. Reply
Alan Steinle May 16, 2025 Thanks for telling me how the last poem seemed to have a twist. When I wrote the poem, I had the ending in mind from the beginning, so it seems pretty straightforward to me. It is interesting to hear other people’s reactions. Some people idealize nature, while others just think of it as a wild and inhospitable place. I pity those who have never had any good experiences in nature. Reply
Alan Steinle May 15, 2025 In my opinion, “The Spring Has Come” goes well with my poems “The Night Has Come” and “Nature’s Paradox.” The first two are a sort of yin-yang of birds. Or yang-yin, since yang is associated with the sun and light and yin is associated with the moon and night. Perhaps all human observations of nature are mediated by our individual mental outlooks, so we see our own emotions and thoughts (of joy, fear, light, darkness, etc.) looking back at us in nature. Thus, it is hard not to anthropomorphize nature. To be completely objective about nature, on the other hand, is to get even farther from nature, in my opinion, because it treats living things as objects or merely factually. Here is the yin poem that didn’t make the editorial cut. If I’m not allowed to add it here, someone can delete it. The Night Has Come The night has come, and I must fight to waken in the fading light. The sun, that tyrant of the day, has given half the world away unto the moon, now full and white. The glare is gone, to my delight, and now all things are in my sight. My time is brief—I can’t delay. The night has come. Nocturnal birds do not unite when hunger strikes and food is slight. When I discover hidden prey, I dive to earth—a lightning ray— and stun it with a crushing bite. The night has come. Reply
Russel Winick May 17, 2025 Alan – I enjoyed all three of your poems, and in particular felt that the last line of “Remember This” was quite stunning and moving. Reply