
“Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west.”
Toll Slowly; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Oh, the little birds sang east, and the little birds sang west.”
Toll Slowly; reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Listen. Are you breathing just a little and calling it a life?”
Have You Ever Tried to Enter the Long Black Branches?
West Wind (1997)
“The bird
That glads the night had cheer'd the listening groves with sweet complainings.”
The Chace (1735)
“How it should be in Heaven I know, for I was there.
By its river. Listening to its birds.”
"How It Should Be in Heaven" (1986), trans. Czesŀaw Miŀosz and Robert Hass
New Poems (1985-1987)
Context: How it should be in Heaven I know, for I was there.
By its river. Listening to its birds.
In its season: in summer, shortly after sunrise.
I would get up and run to my thousand works
And the garden was superterrestrial, owned by imagination.
“If a little voice in your head is telling you something is up, maybe you should listen.”
Source: Crushed
The Rubaiyat (1120)