ULULATION With a bray, with a yap, with a grunt, snort, neigh, with a growl, bark, yelp, with a buzz, hiss, howl, with a chirrup, mew, moo, with a snarl, baa, wail, with a blatter, hoot, bay, with a screech, drone, yowl, with a cackle, gaggle, guggle, with a chuck, cluck, clack, with a hum, gobble, quack, with a roar, blare, bellow, with a yip, croak, crow, with a whinny, caw, low, with a bleat, with a cheep, with a squawk, with a squeak: animals      -- and sometimes humans--                    speak! --Eve Merriam

 

RATTLER, ALERT Slowly he sways that head that cannot hear, Two-jeweled cone of horn the yellow of rust. Pooled on the current at his listening fear. His length is on the tympanum of earth, And by his tendril tongue's tasting the air He sips, perhaps a secret of his race Or feels for the known vibrations, heat, or trace Of smoother satin than the hillwind's thrust Through grass: the aspirate of my half-held breath, The crushing of my weight upon the dust, My foamless heart, the bloodleap at my wrist. --Brewster Ghiselin

 

SEAGULLS Between the under and the upper blue All day the seagulls climb and swerve and soar, Arc intersecting arc, curve over curve. And you may watch them weaving a long time And never see their pattern twice the same And never see their pattern once imperfect. Take any moment they are in the air-- If you could change them, if you had the power How would you place them other than they are? What we have labored all our lives to have And failed, these birds effortlessly achieve: Freedom that flows in form and still is free. --Robert Francis

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