September 9: Titmouse Moment

Although I definitely play fast and loose with haiku as a form in my daily postings, their traditional role is to capture a moment. Amid a stressful day of challenging work, aggravating tasks, a frustrating meeting, and an ever-growing to-do list, there was one moment that made me pause and smile: while I was eating my lunch (at my desk), a titmouse landed on my window feeder, looked in with his beady black eyes, "dee dee'ed" really loudly, grabbed a seed, and flew off. I love those cheeky little birds. So the take-away message: if you have a job that raises your blood pressure, think about putting up a few feeders. Taking a little time to focus on the birds each day really helps. Sometimes those moments are the only thing about my work day that seems to hold any poetry whatsoever.

Thanks to a titmouse,
for a few moments my thoughts
left my desk, took wing.

Those who enjoy poetry and titmice might get a kick out of former US Poet Laureate Billy Collins' poem "Influence," in which he compares poet Marianne Moore to a titmouse (and Robert Penn Warren to a mourning dove). The first time I read it I was in tears. Read it and you'll understand. I think.