50 States of Generosity: New York
We’re starting a new series at Tweetspeak — 50 States of Generosity. We’ll be highlighting the 50 states of America and giving people beautiful ways to understand and be generous with one another by noticing the unique and poetic things each state brings to the country. A more generous people in the States can become a more generous people in the world. We begin with New York.
New York (capital Albany): State Bird—Eastern Bluebird
For Christmas I received a book about birds, and so I found myself writing bird poems. Next I looked it up on my go-to bird site, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, (located in Ithaca) and decided to write a bluebird haiku. The next day I learned the Eastern bluebird is the state bird of New York.
come omen of hope
bluebird blue before blue dawn
Sing for us. Sing fast.
Tweetspeak Poetry is New York-based — not in The Big Apple, but further out, where white pines grow near the mighty Hudson River. The Eastern bluebird is not a big-city bird, but prefers pastures, fields, and golf courses. Its song is quick, almost a whistle.
Different parts of the country have different bluebirds. New York’s is blue and red with a white stomach. A veritable flag. 
More than a hundred years ago Maurice Maesterlinck wrote a play called L’Oseau, or The Bluebird. It is from this work, perhaps, that we get the idea of the Bluebird of Happiness. Or perhaps we need to travel further back and around the globe, to the bluebird myths of China, Russia, and France, and then back to this land and the bluebird tales of the Navajo and the Cochiti. New York contains multitudes, as does the bluebird.
Wherever the bluebird is found, it has something to say about hope, about looking up into the blue air and filling your red heart with breath (red like a rose, which is New York’s state flower!). The state’s jingle is “I Love New York.” Its quarter proclaims it is the “gateway to freedom.” And its motto is “Excelsior,” ever upward, just like its bluebird.
With promises like that, New York is definitely worth a visit. Start with poetry, if you please.
Poetry Prompt: New York Generosities
Use any of the things you learned about New York (research more, if you want!), and put one or more of them into a poem. If you like, weave in a little generosity. Share in the comments.
More About New York: Poets & Writers + Landmarks
Walt Whitman (Brooklyn)
Langston Hughes (Harlem)
Edith Wharton (Manhattan)
Billy Collins, a U.S. poet laureate (Manhattan, Queens, White Plains, and Somers)
The Statue of Liberty, a lasting landmark of a generous spirit of welcome (Liberty Island, NYC)
Niagra Falls is a popular destination
Photo by Joe Cosentino, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Megan Willome.
“Megan Willome’s The Joy of Poetry is not a long book, but it took me longer to read than I expected, because I kept stopping to savor poems and passages, to make note of books mentioned, and to compare Willome’s journey into poetry to my own. The book is many things. An unpretentious, funny, and poignant memoir. A defense of poetry, a response to literature that has touched her life, and a manual on how to write poetry. It’s also the story of a daughter who loses her mother to cancer. The author links these things into a narrative much like that of a novel. I loved this book. As soon as I finished, I began reading it again.”
—David Lee Garrison, author of Playing Bach in the D. C. Metro
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L.L. Barkat says
New York
Down Hudson,
across the city,
out in the icy
waters,
Lady Liberty
stands in the snow
that falls
freely
the eastern bluebird
nowhere to be
seen,
but I believe
anyway, in flight—
the blackbirds are pure
loveliness
up-river
on the wires
outside my window,
swinging along
with the falling,
falling
still falling
snow
Megan Willome says
A poem! And a New York poem at that!
Thank you. Write another when the Eastern bluebird returns.
L.L. Barkat says
🙂
I have never seen an Eastern bluebird in my whole life. And I have lived here my whole life, in the deep country for 17 years and then in the suburbs for the balance. I’m wondering where that sweet little bird is hiding. I really want to see one now that I know about it.
Bethany R. says
I feel the freedom ~
laura says
I saw an Eastern bluebird only yesterday–a flash of blue mingled with the browns of all the sparrows and chickadees at my feeders. Every year they fight (and lose) the house sparrows for my nesting box. The only year I succeeded in Bluebird fledglings was the first year I put the box out. Then the word must have spread in the birdie neighborhood and the sweet blues just couldn’t hold their own with those naughty sparrows.
Megan Willome says
The avian world is wild indeed, Laura.
Bethany R. says
“New York contains multitudes, as does the bluebird.”
Delightful new series, such a creative way to learn and connect with each other.
Megan Willome says
Thanks, Bethany! I look forward to learning fun things about each state.
Andrew Guzaldo says
“LEGACIES ENDURINGLY”
“Legacies come and go,
Material items are not an egalitarian legacy,
For they will dissipate and be relinquished,
The Legacy that never will go away,
Are those that in helping another person?
Help that makes him or her continue,
To fulfill their GOALS in life’s legacy,
Those are the legacies that are afore,
Perennially valiantly present for all times,
These are TRUE Legacies well an enduring”
By Andrew Guzaldo 10/8/2018 ©
Bethany says
A legacy of helping others is rich indeed.
Megan Willome says
Yes, what Bethany said.
Thank you for your poem, Andrew.
Andrew Guzaldo says
Thank you Megan that I finally received a reply, I have written 9 POETRY Books all Best Sellers, I have written novels as well, however nothing to me is more fulfilling than POETRY!!
Megan Willome says
Andrew, I agree that there is something uniquely fulfilling about writing poetry. For me, it’s accomplishing something with an economy of words.
Van Prince says
“Every country is old
each country has a poetic soul.”
_-Van Prince
Katie Brewster says
Hope, disembarking
cued up on the dock, ashore
long voyage behind
***
clear coated branches
trees as figurines, misted
encased in ice
***
red rose, blue bird
Big Apple, mighty Hudson
ever upward
Van Prince says
*Bluebirds*
During the Spring I’ve seen
Bluebirds
in New York
as well in others states
especially Virginia
always remeber by never forgetting
there are three types of Bluebirds:
comprising blue or blue & rose beige
& their color (s) comprise memerizing beauty-
In poetic form,shape, & fashion
the Bluebird is a symbol of
Joy *&* Hope,
represent a connection
between
the Living & Deceased-
Ergo, Bluebirds symolize good fortune,
fertility,properity, & true love &
associated with growtrh & new beginnings-
By: Van PRINCE
Megan Willome says
Thanks for your poem!
Van Prince says
“Poetry
Has Its Own Country.”
_-Van Prince
Thank you as well Ms. Megan Willome