The closer the bird is to the surface of the water, the firmer and more inelastic is the uplift of the rising air. The bird appears to almost feel the surface with the tip of its weather wing.
quote by Lawrence Hargrave
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Related quotes
The Sea-Bird's Song
On the deep is the mariner's danger,
On the deep is the mariner's death;
Who, to fear of the tempest a stranger,
Sees the last bubble burst of his breath?
'T is the sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird,
Lone looker on despair;
The sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird,
The only witness there.
Who watches their course, who so mildly
Careen to the kiss of the breeze?
Who lists to their shrieks, who so wildly
Are clasped in the arms of the seas?
'T is the sea-bird, &c.
Who hovers on high o'er the lover,
And her who has clung to his neck?
Whose wing is the wing that can cover,
With its shadow, the foundering wreck?
'T is the sea-bird, &c.
My eye in the light of the billow,
My wing on the wake of the wave;
I shall take to my breast for a pillow,
The shroud of the fair and the brave.
I'm a sea-bird, &c.
My foot on the iceberg has lighted,
When hoarse the wild winds veer about;
My eye, when the bark is benighted,
Sees the lamp of the Light-House go out.
I'm the sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird,
Lone looker on despair;
The sea-bird, sea-bird, sea-bird,
The only witness there.
poem by John Gardiner Calkins Brainard
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Tame Bird Was In A Cage
THE tame bird was in a cage, the free bird was in the forest.
They met when the time came, it was a decree of fate.
The free bird cries, 'O my love, let us fly to the wood.'
The cage bird whispers, 'Come hither, let us both live in the cage.'
Says the free bird, 'Among bars, where is there room to spread one's wings?'
'Alas,' cries the caged bird, 'I should not know where to sit perched in the sky.'
The free bird cries, 'My darling, sing the songs of the woodlands.'
The cage bird sings, 'Sit by my side, I'll teach you the speech of the learned.'
The forest bird cries, 'No, ah no! songs can never be taught.'
The cage bird says, 'Alas for me, I know not the songs of the woodlands.'
There love is intense with longing, but they never can fly wing to wing.
Through the bars of the cage they look, and vain is their wish to know each other.
They flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, 'Come closer, my love!'
The free bird cries, 'It cannot be, I fear the closed doors of the cage.'
The cage bird whispers, 'Alas, my wings are powerless and dead.'
poem by Rabindranath Tagore
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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VI
The tame bird was in a cage, the free bird was in the forest.
They met when the time came, it was a decree of fate.
The free bird cries, "O my love, let us fly to wood."
The cage bird whispers, "Come hither, let us both live in the
cage."
Says the free bird, "Among bars, where is there room to spread
one's wings?"
"Alas," cries the cage bird, "I should not know where to sit
perched in the sky."
The free bird cries, "My darling, sing the songs of the
woodlands."
The cage bird says, "Sit by my side, I'll teach you the speech of
the learned."
The forest bird cries, "No, ah no! songs can never be taught."
The cage bird says, "Alas for me, I know not the songs of the
woodlands."
Their love is intense with longing, but they never can fly wing
to wing.
Through the bars of the cage they look, and vain is their wish to
know each other.
They flutter their wings in yearning, and sing, "Come closer, my
love!"
The free bird cries, "It cannot be, I fear the closed doors of
the cage."
The cage bird whispers, "Alas, my wings are powerless and dead."
poem by Rabindranath Tagore from The Gardener (1913)
Submitted by Silvia Velea
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Home To You
Heart is feeling like a sunbeam
In a distant land
I am soaring cross the surface
Coming home to you
You are far away from me
I’m holding like a song
Love song in the tailing wind
Coming home to thee
Sunshine in the window glass
Face in golden light
Planet surface under me
Flying home to you
See the home in hearting sound
See you there for me
Feel the distant starry sky
Sailing home to you
Wind is tugging at the wings
Banking on the breeze
On the back of bird in sky
Soaring home to thee
Bird is flying to the place
Of planet earthing line
Moving to the grounding place
Moving home to you
Landing on the tar place run
Sinking on the land
I am here my beauty one
Coming home to you
Heart is pounding, you are there
On the surface place
Heart is soaring like a bird
Beating home to you
Hand is stretching out to you
You your gentle touch
Feel it burning on my skin
Holding home to you
Arms around me, round me here
Body holding firm
Spirit soaring like a sail
You are here with me
Walking to the home place laughter
Hands in moving rhyme
You are with me, you are here
I am home with you.
poem by Jonathan Drane
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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To a Young Poet
Time cannot break the bird's wing from the bird.
Bird and wing together
Go down, one feather.
No thing that ever flew,
Not the lark, not you,
Can die as others do.
poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Sweet Miracle
I wasn't waling on water
I was stadning on a reef
when the tide came in
swept beneath the surface
lost without a trace
no hope at all
no hope at all
Oh - sweet miracle
oh - sweet miracle
Of life
I wasn't walking angles
I was talking to myself
rising up to the surface
raging against the night
starless night
oh - sweet miracle
love's sweet miracle
of life
Oh salvation
Oh salvation
I wasn't praying for magic
I was hading in plain sight
rising up from the surface
to flight into th night
song performed by by Rush
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Underwater Love
Looking down into the water
Its hard to make out your face
If our love is drowning, then why
Do I feel so out of place?
Bubbling up to the surface
Are you getting a breath of fresh air?
Forever longing to make you mine
But I cant escape your stare...
Liquid seeps into your lungs
But your eyes look so serene
Its wonderful how the surface ripples
But youre perfect, and I cannot breathe
Forever longing to make you mine
But I cant escape your stare...
Hold me closer, keep me near
My underwater love
Hold me closer, keep me near
Ill never get enough
Touch me from below
Ill never let you go
But I cant escape
song performed by by Faith No More
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Sky And Water
Birds fly in the sky,
Below the fishes
Swim in the big flat sea.
A bird
Jumps into the water,
Head down, aiming
To catch a fish.
Deeper,
A fish, as it swims up
Toward the surface,
Catches the birds.
As the fish jumps into the air,
A bird catches the fish.
Fishes are birds,
Only water is not like
The air.
poem by Atef Ayadi
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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If you direct your attention to the position of a bird with regard to the wave surface, it will speedily be noticed to be nearly always on the rising side or face of the wave and moving apparently at right angles to the wave's course, but really diagonal to it.
quote by Lawrence Hargrave
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Ay De Mi
O bird, that used to press,
Thy head against my cheek
With touch that seem'd to speak,
And ask a tender 'yes' -
Ay de mi, my bird:
Ay de mi, my bird, my bird -
Ay de mi, my bird.
O tender downy breast,
And warmly beating heart,
That beating seem'd a part
Of me who gave it rest -
Ay de mi, my bird:
Ay de mi, my bird, my bird -
Ay de mi, my bird.
poem by George Eliot
Submitted by Veronica Serbanoiu
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Your mind is like water in a pond
Observe the water in a pond
Keep it still and particles will sediment to ground
Only then the surface becomes transparent and clear
Our reflections we can view without a blur
When wind blows and creates waves on the surface
Those sediments will be stirred up and make the water opaque
Then the water surface is no longer transparent and clear
And our reflections in it will become just blurs
Our mind is like water in that pond
Only when still and calm it can be clear and strong
If we let external forces disturb our still and calm mind
By those things we will be controlled and beguiled.
poem by Henry Chen
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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The Fish and the Sky
Once there was a fish living in a stream
Where water was clear and the surface gleam
Food was abundant and large predators away
The fish was passing happily its days
One day the fish looked up and noticed the sky
So blue and endless and free in its eyes
Suddenly it saw a flock of birds moving by
And immediately yearned that it itself could fly
With passing of time the fish’s desire grew
No longer with happiness its mind was ruled
It no more noticed clear water and surface gleam
Lack of predators and abundance of food became unimportant things
Finally the desire was too much for the fish to bear
So, it relentlessly jumped out of water into the air
In doing so the fish met its ultimate death
Devoured by a bird watching its crazy stunt.
poem by Henry Chen
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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She Used To Sing
She Used to Sing.
A carafe of water fills the stomach and no organs are disturbed,
yet it is unclear like a mirror without a timbre.
She drank gin pale as water, but it made her smile and laugh.
She painted pictures with her voice, told stories of days gone by.
Old, but she had been young and done things she sang about.
She wowed a carpet of life lived, full of magic colours, too vivid
for some, a grandmother is supposed to be chaste.
Sent to a home for the very old and inept, a song bird silenced.
She watches TV on a screen high on the wall for her not to reach
up and throw into the dustbin of tedium. Hands folded like a tired
bird’s wings she waits for an end that takes long time coming.
And the carafe of water has dust on its surface
poem by Oskar Hansen
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Landscape 28 Meniscus
The molecules of water are held together
By weak electrical forces
That extend in all directions.
At the water surface, the upward forces,
Having nowhere watery to go,
Lie along the surface
To form a thin skin, called a meniscus.
This is the skin that holds water drops,
Supports water striders,
Even skips stones.
I came once to an Adirondack Lake
On a still moonlit night.
The lake seemed full of fireflies,
Flashes of light in the water
As far as the eye could see.
I finally discovered the source of the light,
The sudden movements of water striders
Riding the meniscus
Bent the water surface
Into a curved mirror
That reflected glimmers of moonlight.
The Japanese make a flower arrangement
In a vessel with a perfectly level rim.
The vessel is filled with water
To a level above the rim
The water is held from overflowing
By a curved meniscus
That bends light like a lens.
In the center of the water
Floats a single perfect flower
That sends tiny ripples across the water surface
And crinkles the meniscus
When the vessel is vibrated.
poem by Stewart McKenzie
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Sympathy
I know what the caged bird feels, alas!
When the sun is bright on the upland slopes;
When the wind stirs soft through the springing grass,
And the river flows like a stream of glass;
When the first bird sings and the first bud opes,
And the faint perfume from its chalice steals--
I know what the caged bird feels!
I know why the caged bird beats his wing
Till its blood is red on the cruel bars;
For he must fly back to his perch and cling
When he fain would be on the bough a-swing;
And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars
And they pulse again with a keener sting--
I know why he beats his wing!
I know why the caged bird sings, ah me,
When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,--
When he beats his bars and he would be free;
It is not a carol of joy or glee,
But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core,
But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flings--
I know why the caged bird sings!
poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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There Are Only Eyes Appearing Above The Surface
There are only eyes appearing above the surface
in the brown water of the river's pool
before they again disappear without a trace.
There are only eyes appearing above the surface
when it notices a prey, are covered by the water-curtain
where the crocodile hides in the depths of the river,
there are only eyes appearing above the surface
in the brown water of the river's pool.
poem by Gert Strydom
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Shore Leave Ornithology
Slacks, coffee trend
I could have been in the us navy
Flapping grey, coffee smoke
I could have been in another nineteen-fifty
Where the hell were you?
Rough stencil, print music
Cardboard, cardboard, cardboard, cardboard, cardboard coffee
Saxophone mention barbers, n.y.
The cigarette was burning, the flat shoes
Stool
Bongo, coffee, don't mention that black man
The leather-coat was his
Where was she?
Could have been in the us navy
Flow beating air, table-top, shoulder slung
Shore leave, no sailors here
Cardboard, cardboard, cardboard, cardboard
Liquor slacks twisting
The cigarette was burning
The flat shoes, the flat shoes, the flat shoes
Bird, bird, bird, bird
I could have been in another nineteen-fifty
Bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird
Bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird, bird
I could have been in another nineteen-fifty
Bird, bird, bird
song performed by by Xtc
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Bird's Wish
The bird asks me
What I’d do
If I am a bird.
I tell him
High and high I’d soar
So high that I’d see the earth no more
I’d be a bird on the tree
I’d be a bird that’s free!
What you’d do bird
If you’re a man?
To be fair
It’d be my only prayer to God
Don’t be so hard
Make me once again a bird!
Saying this the bird sings
And spreads its wings to a sky
I can never fly!
poem by Pradip Chattopadhyay
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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If The Surface For Them Did Not Exist
If the surface didn't exist,
Many wouldn't have a thought to cling to.
Many wouldn't know,
Which gossip heard was true.
If the surface for them did not exist.
If the surface didn't exist,
The many dependent on having lives not their own...
Would be lost without being told what to do.
Many absolutely would not have a clue...
How to find their way around,
Without following in someone's footsteps.
If the surface they sniffed did not exist.
And if the surface for them did not exist...
They would not be able to sit alone,
Doing something completely on their own...
And appreciating life,
With the minding of their own business.
If...
The surface for many did not exist,
It would be taumatic for them to seek a thought process.
Many would not know where or how to begin.
So many are accustomed to living lives that are shallow.
With an ability only to identify with that...
Which is supplied and arrives to them surfacely.
Even a dog sniffing tries to find a place to bury a bone.
And doing that alone.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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A Bird of Ploy
In a meadow serene
Appears a sight seldom seen
A bird and a cat
Stand back to back
Take ten paces
Then stop and turn their faces
The bird suddenly draws a gun
The cat in panic leaves on the run
The bird laughing drops the 'toy'
For it was merely a clever ploy
Giving the bird space to fly
Rather than stand, fight... and surely die!
poem by Smoky Hoss
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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