{"id":3576,"date":"2013-12-21T09:21:26","date_gmt":"2013-12-21T07:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/?p=3576"},"modified":"2013-12-21T09:21:26","modified_gmt":"2013-12-21T07:21:26","slug":"christmas-sparrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/?p=3576","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Sparrow"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><a title=\"christmas-sparrow-joyce-geleynse\" href=\"http:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/christmas-sparrow-joyce-geleynse.jpg\" rel=\"prettyPhoto-img\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3577 alignleft\" alt=\"christmas-sparrow-joyce-geleynse\" src=\"http:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/christmas-sparrow-joyce-geleynse.jpg\" width=\"347\" height=\"250\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong><blockquote class=\"sc-blockquote\">Christmas Sparrow<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The first thing I heard this morning<br \/> was a soft, insistent rustle,<br \/> the rapid flapping of wings<br \/> against glass as it turned out,<\/p>\n<p>a small bird rioting<br \/> in the frame of a high window,<br \/> trying to hurl itself through<br \/> the enigma of transparency into the spacious light.<\/p>\n<p>A noise in the throat of the cat<br \/> hunkered on the rug<br \/> told me how the bird had gotten inside,<br \/> carried in the cold night<br \/> through the flap in a basement door,<br \/> and later released from the soft clench of teeth.<\/p>\n<p>Up on a chair, I trapped its pulsations<br \/> in a small towel and carried it to the door,<br \/> so weightless it seemed<br \/> to have vanished into the nest of cloth.<\/p>\n<p>But outside, it burst<br \/> from my uncupped hands into its element,<br \/> dipping over the dormant garden<br \/> in a spasm of wingbeats<br \/> and disappearing over a tall row of hemlocks.<\/p>\n<p>Still, for the rest of the day,<br \/> I could feel its wild thrumming<br \/> against my palms whenever I thought<br \/> about the hours the bird must have spent<br \/> pent in the shadows of that room,<br \/> hidden in the spiky branches<br \/> of our decorated tree, breathing there<br \/> among metallic angels, ceramic apples, stars of yarn,<\/p>\n<p>its eyes open, like mine as I lie here tonight<br \/> picturing this rare, lucky sparrow<br \/> tucked into a holly bush now,<br \/> a light snow tumbling through the windless dark.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em>Billy Collins<\/blockquote><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-contemporary-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3576"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3579,"href":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3576\/revisions\/3579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.magdalenabiela.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}