Out of the fading dark
chack into the honey
we are enveloped
mink-mink-mink in
filtered passages ptsee
as our day branches
tchook tchook tchook
the woods are vocal
with no single refrain
hooh-hoo-hoo-hoo
rock of hearing tic-tic
tsee fragments into time
tsip one story repeated
wee chirri-tew-ee-o
tew-ee-o all the ways
singers tsee wir-ri-o
make ir-ri-o contact
opening new spaces
caw kaah their voices
stirrrrrup chur-r-r
ring hidden glades
signatures on dawn
tic-tic-tic took trrr
offer no human key
to mutual ker-honk
survival teacher zinks
teacher an ascending
tsink tsee-tui listen
our width of attention
chippoo-it tio-tew makes
space for another
teecha-teecha-teecha
in volutes of dark song
si si si a trickling spark
streams pooled tu-itty
forwarding tutee-o how
you are wee-ploo-ploo
heard in the moment
any backup turns a solo
tchuk sipp ptick
shimmering location call
notes a tserret-et-et-et
today’s woods are ghostly
forecasts of past roor-rrr
echoing what could be
tsee-tsee-ch-ch-ch-ch
recovered from the churr
of tak-tak-tak fungi fruited
on a log if-he if-he if-he
queu-queu-queu-queu
shoulders drop in shade
loosening kwarrp and heart
honk keerk with each step
along the path kraa kraa kraa
no beloveds are sacrificed
hweet to unbreathable
drumming what is that
zee zee zee tsee-tsee
bell toll divides the air too
distant to impose chrr-chrr
on the insistent quiet
chiff-chaff ways kii-ak
now coo-coo-roo-c-coo
This poem, composed in response to James Berrington’s work on Great North Wood, uses bird vocabulary compiled by John Bevis in Aaaaw to Zzzzzd: The Words of Birds.
Listen to James Berrington’s field recordings from the Great North Wood here.
Photograph © James Berrington
