Birds Appearing In A Dream By: Michael CollierOne had feathers like a blood-streaked koi,
another a tail of color-coded wires. One was a blackbird stretching orchid wings, another a flicker with a wounded head. All flew like leaves fluttering to escape, bright, circulating in burning air, and all returned when the air cleared. One was a kingfisher trapped in its bower, deep in the ground, miles from water. Everything is real and everything isn’t. Some had names and some didn’t. Named and nameless shapes of birds, at night my hand can touch your feathers and then I wipe the vernix from your wings, you who have made bright things from shadows, you who have crossed the distances to roost in me. |
In this poem, the poet uses figurative language devices to explain what is going on in his dream. The author of this poem is describing the birds he sees in his dream. Throughout the poem, the author uses imagery and similes to describe the birds in his dream. Multiple times during the poem, the poet uses vivid details to describe the birds he sees. In the first stanza, the poet says, “One had feathers like a blood-streaked koi, another a tail of color-coded wires.” In this part, the poet is describing these birds so you can picture them in your mind. He also talks about how the birds fly and how they circle though the air. This is to give the reader the sense of soaring through the sky with the freedom. Later in the poem, the author uses similes to describe how the birds are flying. He says that the birds are flying, “like leaves fluttering to escape.” Here the poet is describing the birds as they fly through the air like he did before but this time he uses imagery so the reader can picture falling leaves escaping from the trees. In this piece, the poet uses imagery and similes to describe the birds he sees within his dream.
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