Best Sandpiper Poems

I saw a one-legged Sandpiper
today on the beach.
I saw him land on his single pedestal,
it was an artful thing.

Entranced by his disability,
I stood transfixed with curiosity.
I so wanted to help him
but we're worlds apart.

How can he feed?
How can he fend?

Suddenly, he flew away up the...

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       little piper, little piper
   oh how fast you skip away
 as the morning tide crawls in to taste the beach -
briny swishes bring your breakfast
 while you prance to greet the day
   and they...

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I watch them on the beach -
shorebirds they are called
running here and there.
Residents of land more than the air,
they'd rather poke their beaks into the sand
probing for morsels of tasty crustaceans.
Pecking, always pecking,
scrambling to and fro,
they're focused, ever focused
on the job at hand.

Not especially strong,...

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A solitary sandpiper picks his path
Three - four maybe a score
Find them on any sandy shore
Marvelous kaleidoscope  of mobility
Double jointed tooth pick legs
Old time movies jerk ahead
Staccato motion, roaming and roving
Pointed beak pecks at sand
As if going treasure troving
So intent upon the chore
Hopping over...

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I watch fascinated 
at its teetering stance,
bobbing up and down,
picking at small insects
that infest the lonely loch,
that it chooses instead of
upland streams or creeks
or fast-flowing rivers,
or in some lonely lake.
 
Today I sit on a small chair,
behind some bushes on the shore
of a lonely loch,...

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Sandpiper Pausing...Again

What times are these
where hearts run hot and cold
ceaseless conscience alerts
remind us of steel girders fallen prone
entombments sealed
their distant voice remembered well

Compassion's lens peers through
this fallen metropolis of micro-flesh
this glass transparency
engulfed by forsaken smoke
knowing today's ethereal
descends as heart's residue
embracing darkness recalled
clock hands stopping
media rushing...

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The sandpiper seemed innocent enough,
as it trailed the water’s edge.
She followed, keeping her distance.

It was a beautiful day in April,
when the unspeakable happened.
A warm sun and gentle breeze
comforted her busy mind. 

Patiently, she followed the bird,
feeling the mixture of sand, pebbles, 
and broken shells beneath...

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The sandpiper seemed innocent enough,
as it trailed the water’s edge.
She followed, keeping her distance.

It was a beautiful day in April,
when the unspeakable happened.
A warm sun and gentle breeze
comforted her busy mind. 

Patiently, she followed the bird,
feeling the mixture of sand, pebbles, 
and broken shells beneath...

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The briny's ebbed and out of reach
and in its wake a fresh clean beach
but left behind and snagged on rock
are slimy strings of bladder wrack.
In rock pools some creatures marooned
and bits of bygone life abound,
like skeletons of crustacean
that once thrived in this vast ocean. 

A...

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The briny’s ebbed and now far out of sight
And all around a vast expanse we see
With debris left by the retreating sea.
And stretch of golden sand, a real delight.
On rocks are barnacles there clinging tight
Waiting for next high tide to set them free.
A risky life...

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They'd wade at standards to be seen by most.
The Spoon-billed Sandpiper, who shares wading,
to dying, one hundred ten, and counting.
Stretched East Asia, Russia through China ... host.
They've spoon-shaped bills to help them scoop up moss,
insects, shrimp, and worms. They are renowned for
their calls, which males...

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This world, never ours alone, but shared with other creatures great and small.
The Earth turns and new dawn comes, and will long after we're gone.
A Sandpiper flitted along the shore and told me so.   

We must face a truth that we borrowed these...

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