FIONA GLEN
Strings 1
‘dreams jangling with lost connections’
March 2024
Unflock
i.
distinctively liquid and rich in mimicry
descending in parachute song flight
with wild trumpeting
& whooping on the breeding grounds
larking
the ventriloqual wet-my-lips of a marshland sentinel
throat snatched harsh scarp flushed
from trailside
calling ahh in motion
the bounce over scrubland, a zippy chorus
of unreeling fishing lines
tails drummed in diving
in penetrating yelps and poop whistles in strident pipings
in the evening, frog-ish and sneezing
calling cor-lee at all times
the metal and the melody
slender belly, furbished beak
ii.
most guttural summer whinnying and wailing
and snoring near the nest
like cat, like pig, like bell, like bugle!
with cacophonic croon and lekside bubble
the wicka-wicka-wicka and zit-zit of sexes
display of courting clatterbills
brackish & thick-necked
double quack – cackle – gabble
hissinghonkinggrowlinggrunting
exploding in wing claps after the foghorn
after the break of the moan, far-carrying
iii.
hover or circle
with well-worn tremble, that whoo-hoo-hoo
hung high over woodland
the fluting too-eet: cool diagnosis
as with the nasal shreep or thin tseep much as the kirrick or the creek
above our blind parsing, all this
squealing shrieking yelping wheezing whining whistling twittering tinkling
trilling
ringing rattling rumbling purring clucking crackling croaking chattering jangling
barking booming
accelerating in short bursts from the reed beds
from prominent song posts
perched
audacious! astounding!
amazingly boisterous, the colony on the rock!
in raucous kaar and resonant korr
skaark chack chek and harsher chuckle
crooning ledger
familiar laughter
silent elsewhere
iv.
scolding churr and disjointed jangle
alarms
sound out of sight, from scanty undergrowth
o, know and hold and note
these little powers of terse air!
passerine aggressions
swell against your migratory favour
a curt rest on the water: cascading torrent
from a base of plaintive tu-lu-lee phrases, tales
rise to sparkling trill final flourish
from grating on the morning short – sharp – quick
to the best lick of the dusk, the very silken best
hanging for the opening, soft and low
this, for the commonly mute and tending quiet
and this
for the barely heard the rare
FIONA GLEN is a writer, editor and artist from Edinburgh. She is interested in ecologies and experimental uses of text. Glen's poetry has appeared in exhibitions, periodicals, and anthologies from Dark Mountain, Poem Atlas and Broken Sleep. Mycoglossia (2022, HVTN Press) – her poetry pamphlet co-written with Nina Hanz – is an exploration of mushrooms and spores.
