Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Judith Vollmer’s "Listening to Birds After a Mild Winter" captures the frenetic energy of birds returning in spring, weaving a meditation on resilience, instinct, and the chaotic interplay between nature and human presence. The poem begins in uncertainty: "I don’t even know where they were or if they went far where they slept but I think they must be wildly happy squinting in the brightness." The speaker’s lack of knowledge about the birds’ winter whereabouts parallels a broader human curiosity about the hidden rhythms of nature. The line "wildly happy squinting in the brightness" suggests an almost human quality to the birds? return, as if they too experience the renewal of light with a burst of joy.

Vollmer contrasts this with the artificial provisions made by her neighbors: "even though all winter my neighbors stuffed their tall fat feeders with blobs of suet big enough for wild dogs." This image of excess—feeders overfilled with suet—suggests both care and absurdity, emphasizing the contrast between human intervention and the birds? natural instincts. The birds, however, are not depicted as dependent on this generosity. Instead, the poem suggests they navigate the world in a different register: "I don’t think they dream in color or even see it: don’t they follow shadows & charcoal slashes Don’t they ride wind-gliders over bushes." Here, Vollmer shifts the focus from human perception to avian experience, suggesting that birds exist in a space of movement and contrast rather than rich visual detail.

The poem then turns to the birds’ resourcefulness: "Here’s some moldy straw Here’s human hair on an open window sill plus worms are coming up to aerate a little." These fragments of the environment—decay, discarded human traces, and the natural cycles of the earth—form the raw materials of life’s continuation. The mention of "worms... regenerating after fishes chomped them half-off" is both grotesque and wondrous, emphasizing the relentless recycling of life. The image of "a couple thousand night crawlers... snatched by the lousy crows barreling up from the park like intuition" suggests that even acts of survival—like the crow’s predation—are part of a larger instinctual pattern.

The cacophony of nature escalates toward the poem’s end, as "Jays & cardinals are coming out of their REM sleep too." The birds? return is equated with a kind of waking from unconsciousness, reinforcing the theme of emergence. This leads to the final, commanding presence of the crow: "The crow on the storm drain’s screaming Get to work the whole sky’s barking." The crow’s voice—an imperative rather than a mere call—gives the poem a sense of urgency. Nature itself seems to demand motion, as if the very sky is a force propelling life forward. The poem concludes with a final assertion of the birds? excitement, their sheer vitality: "Just because they didn’t freeze on icy twigs or get knocked over by blizzards & drifts, they’re excited." This suggests that their energy is not merely relief at survival but something more intrinsic—a natural exultation in the return of the world.

Vollmer’s "Listening to Birds After a Mild Winter" is a poem of motion and intensity, capturing the pulsing reawakening of nature. The breathless, almost fragmented structure mirrors the erratic liveliness of the birds themselves, while the contrast between human provision and natural instinct underscores the resilience of life. The poem suggests that while humans attempt to care for or control nature, birds live according to a deeper, unrelenting rhythm—one that is both mysterious and necessary.

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