E) -- The Mockingbird Poems --

The Mockingbird Sings At Night

In the dead of night,
when a blanket of darkness
and quiet has settled
over the neighborhood,
the only sounds one hears
are crickets chirping,
maybe a frog or two,
a dog barking in the distance.
Then, piercing the night air,
comes loud and clear
the varied song of the mockingbird.

When all other birds sleep,
from them nary a peep,
the mockingbird sings
for all he is worth,
as though his heart would burst.
Of what is he so proud?
Why is it nature's plan
for the mockingbird alone
to sing so sweetly,
to sing so fervently,
in the dead of night?

Why The Nighttime Songster Sings

In the dead of night,
the mockingbird sings his cheery song.
Why he sings is of debate.
The scientist in me says
he sings to proclaim this territory his,
he sings to attract a mate.
Ahh, but the poet in me says
the mockingbird accepts as his solemn duty
to fill the dead of night -
when all has become dark and dreary,
when the quiet has grown quite eerie,
when Man is most susceptible to
depression and despair -
with song to speak to Man's soul,
to provide reassurance that this blackness
is but fleeting,
to remind Man all of life's beauty,'tho unseen
in the dead of night, is still there,
to offer promise of a new day's dawning
when light and warmth shall return to comfort him.
To those who would hear...and understand...
the nighttime songster sings
to offer Mankind hope during all
the blackest periods of his life, just as
in the dead of night.