Hitchcock birds covering the baseball field
the batting cages
starlings
they move in murmuration
slow and quick
My blackened voice lifts off the ground with them
(no one sees us)
in a zizz and swirl
soundless except for the air they press and fold
© Jilly’s All Rights Reserved
for De’s Quadrille challenge at dVerse.
Jilly's 
Nice imagery. brings back some haunting images from the movie.
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Thank you!
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Oh you made the birds ominous… but a murmuration of starlings sounds fantastic
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I LOVE the idea of their wings “pressing and folding” the air. And “murmuration” is one of my favorite words, ever. 🙂
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They move in murmuration – what a great line! I was really frightened by the movie The Birds – you’ve captured it here.
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“My blackened voice lifts off the ground with them” — phenomenal. Sets the tone for the whole poem, brings your voice into one with the swarm.
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I like the way that the words ‘Hitchcock birds’ brings an immediate monochrome picture in my head of the birds on the climbing frame – not of a baseball field or batting cages. I love the phrase ‘they move in murmuration’. But I think the line that stands out for me in your quadrille, Jill, is ‘My blackened voice lifts off the ground with them’.
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Jilly, you conjure up the image of those starlings so perfectly. I’m right there–good poeming.
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A poetic take on the movie. There is so much movement in this, and beautiful language, too, Jilly.
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I wonder how Hitchcock got all those birds to cooperate in that movie. That was too early for animation. As I recall they were scary.
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Peanut butter!
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Nice poem. Murmuration is one of my favorite words. I have always feared swarms of birds ever since I saw that movie as a child.
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This is fantastic! I watched the blackbirds gather today and swirl through the air – managed to get a couple of pics through the misty rain.
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Fantastic joining of images and shifting of perspective. I love watching murmurations and other kinds of bird gatherings.
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Incredible imagery here. I am reminded of haunting images from the movie.
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I love the how the birds: move in murmuration, with these sounds: zizz and swirl.
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The murmurations of starlings are such a harbinger of winter. Nature paints such pictures, aptly described in your poem!
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move in murmuration was fabulous Jilly! like they followed the heart beatings of the others, slow but quick, these opposite but complimentary actions do exist – I like that you remind me of how both can function in an event
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“the air they press and fold” is memorably marvellous – the structure suggests the patterns of birds and the one intriguing point is the ‘blackened’ voice – so many ways to interpret that
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‘Soundless except for the air they press and fold.’ Standout line for me. Love the poem, Jilly. Has an immediate feel to it.
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There’s a slow swirl in this, which is fun since the word was quick. Nice imagery.
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“in a zizz and swirl // soundless except for the air they press and fold”
Soundless and yet your head produces the sound as you read this! I suspect that there is a larger poem… more to be said. Yet this, in the constraint of the 44, manages much. Well done!
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Rather vivid and rich with mystery. That blackened voice must be both intriguing and terrifying at the same time.
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Vivid visual but what strikes me the most is this…”My blackened voice lifts off the ground with them”. What a profound collaboration between you and the birds! Love it.
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Slow and quick, deliberate with a dark(?) purpose..impressive murmuration, Jilly!
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I can hear the air being silently pressed and folded by the murmuration- You induced some kind of synesthesia in me-Now how did you do that?
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Sound triggered by motion – hadn’t thought about that being synesthesia, but you’re right. Funny – my students are going through Those Winter Sundays this past week and one remarked about his use of that, too. Glad you stopped by to read, my friend!
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