Family You’re Elated to See (Poem)

Summary

The author describes a joyful encounter with a group of cranes during a morning walk.

Abstract

In November, the author is awakened by the calls of cranes flying overhead. The author is drawn to follow the cranes, feeling a sense of connection and joy in their presence. The cranes are described as tall, elegant creatures, and the author feels a sense of shared identity with them as fellow living beings. The encounter leaves the author feeling truly happy.

Opinions

The author feels a strong sense of connection to the cranes, describing them as "loose balloons" and "Pied piper" that draw the author to follow them.
The author feels a sense of shared identity with the cranes, describing them as "living, wandering, seeking beings" just like humans.
The author expresses a sense of joy and happiness in the encounter with the cranes, describing it as a moment of "true happiness."

Look to the skies to find them.

In November the cranes descend, a swoop of jewels on their way to warmer lands.

Their brazen calls pull me from dreams, my quick walk becoming a pajama-clad hike.

How to describe it? Like nothing else of this world. A rattle of full-bodied sound.

A baby’s laugh, a burble.

A trumpet, a bugle.

They fly and I follow, drawn by a Pied piper with an irresistible flute.

I walk with them to the river, chasing a group of loose balloons, my eyes tied to the sky.

I make my way through the maze of cottonwood trees, grabbing hold of trunks to steady myself.

We both arrive; the woods break.

I watch their gray bodies, their delicate legs.

So tall, almost as tall as me.

We’re all who we are, unashamed — living, wandering, seeking beings.

The cranes laugh, and I laugh with them.

Briefly, truly happy.