Bird Sounds & Sunlight
Hello! You are welcome to settle in and enjoy some poetry. Here you’ll find poems, rhyming and free verse, by Michael Orlando Mancarella. A new one comes out every Saturday. Read here on the blog, or if you would prefer, you may sign up to receive the poems as an email newsletter (also for free), at the bottom of the page.
Archive
On a Beach in His Mind
Lost in Spirit’s land
Looking for direction,
He is offered a hand
To help with introspection.
He notices the plan
Doesn’t call for perfection—
But drawn in some sand:
Beauty’s reflection.
written June 10, 2025
Proper Read (A Book Came in the Mail)
Small in size, a book of poetry,
bound up, stiff and tight, by the spine,
was brittle beyond its thirty years.
I opened it, and it split,
and I became careful, reading it
partly open. But that’s no way
to read a book, so I opened it wide,
without regard. Sections began
pulling away from the paper spine,
pages relaxed and fell away from each other
along the seam. My tightly wound book,
part by part, page by page, let go and relaxed.
I think I will keep the pages together, loosely.
written June 17, 2025
Refreshed
I’m trying to get my mood right
before I get to the forest
but when I get to the forest
my mood will get right.
And so I get to her
with my dusty house of mind,
and she opens
the drapes and windows,
and lets sunshine in with raw air.
She hands me a broom
and a new day begins.
written July 3, 2025
The Sleeping Trees
friends of the same earth
bear the winter well
patiently
allowing snow to gather
upon their bareness
resting
in a white mosaic
that will only last as long
as the wind doesn’t blow
as the air remains cold
written early 2014
Day Three of Heavy Heat
It’s hot and humid
here on the East Coast.
Thank goodness for AC,
but staying inside leaves me feeling cooped up.
Tired and lethargic, I drowse on the couch
with a book of Japanese poems,
my thumb marking the page.
Eyes still closed,
I awake from sleep
and wiggle my thumb to know
that the book is still there.
written June 25, 2025
Opening to Hope
I think back
To something that was intractable,
And how, despite that “fact”
Something else became possible.
Although hard to believe
In details changing, per se,
Perhaps I may still leave
Room for a better day.
written April 22-23, 2025
A Duck
I see, down below
A duck alone on the pond,
And I feel a sort of bond
Over this way we both know:
A solitary way we go—
On he goes, and on,
Quietly paddling around the pond,
Adding ripples to the flow.
Then he takes to flight,
And flaps his winged beauty
Up even with my eyes,
Before lifting above the tree tips’ height.
Be well, solitary—
May you go well and thrive.
written May 5, 2025
Let Go That Weight
A mourning dove preens herself
on the shingled roof.
Rainwater still on everything.
Out on the balcony, the morning light
is sturdy. I can no longer
think I’m a perfect
person somehow being
imperfect. No, simply:
I’m struggling. I don’t know
how to do this. But I
am part of this sunny,
cool, rainwater morning.
And perfectionism, a weight
to be placed down.
written May 18, 2025
For a Tough Morning
Bare trees do
Turn to leaf,
And this bitter thing
Will grow to be sweet.
written May 17, 2025
To Uncover
It’s this
biting wind that moved
the clouds
to uncover
the sun.
written December 3, 2021
Seeing Through
I tend toward
Little boxes in my mind
To sort and store
The life things I find.
Just a theory, still—
It feels apparent.
What would happen
If the cubes turned transparent?
May 8, 2025
Came a Certain Past Thing
Today the past came not to haunt
Or play with some old sense of want—
I now reflect with spirit’s wings
So as to want no different thing.
written May 2, 2025
Lightly
Out on the balcony
My feelings are good.
My feet are bare, and warmed
By the sun-warm wood.
I’ve got rice in the cooker,
Tempeh in the tray,
And thoughts of a coffee shop
I’ll make it to some day.
Across town the early blossoms
Are blinking into bloom;
The air supports bees and birds
In nature’s open room.
People, too, move around
Within this space, lightly—
Spring can be delicate,
But its effects, mighty.
written April 28, 2025
Giving It Space
Heavy thoughts weigh on me,
But let’s just wait to see
What comes of sadness, let be,
And not pulled into negativity.
written April 11, 2025
Since
Long ago, when Father died
I was still a young man.
In the time since, I’ve tried
To grow, as I walk in time’s land.
Came a night recently,
In dream he was there.
In his hands he held lightly
My plans for life’s career.
He looked at me with
The strength of years wise;
His words were of pith
And there, respect in his eyes.
written April 14, 2025
Middle Days
The tree tips are swollen, pushing buds high,
Yet flakes of snow make trails down the sky—
And things have come that I worry by.
This middle day holds more winter than spring
But soon it will be spring and summer, alternating—
And with it, all the warmer things.
The duck, there, pauses in the pond
And his ripples still carry on . . .
Given time, spring will sing her song.
written April 7, 2025
A Gathering Spring
a quiet rain
fell on a kind Sunday morning
the air was cool
with hints of warmth
spring was feeling inevitable
some new ideas came to me
for an old project
I dreamt of things
with a cup of green tea
this afternoon
I’ll give myself a haircut
and shave my winter beard
written March 16, 2025
Sunny Morning on the East Side of My Home
{the landscape is a cup of coffee
with birdsong the sugar
and sunshine the cream}
morning
what will you
kindly teach me
what things
will we
wonder together
written March 10, 2025