{"id":1858,"date":"2026-06-08T23:52:51","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=1858"},"modified":"2026-06-14T20:41:02","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T20:41:02","slug":"songbirds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/?p=1858","title":{"rendered":"Songbirds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Northern Cardinal chirps in youthful vigor
making social calls to long tables
ferrying art supplies and refreshments
among elders who watch through wise eyes.

Mourning Dove flutters with paint vials
distributing pigments from table to table.

Downy Woodpecker 
kneels down to eye level, 
meeting a watery blue-eyed gaze 
and guiding this eager resident 
through paint selection.

The Yellow, no, make that 
Purple<\/em>-Bellied Finch frolics 
with pigment-dipped brushes 
bringing bristle to miniature roofs.

Tufted Titmouse smiles shyly 
and holds a wooden birdhouse 
at an angle, all the better for 
the painter\u2019s access.

Blue Jay twirls and shares facts 
about feather hues 
and winged behavior
as she smiles shyly down 
at the wrinkled face 
beaming back up at her.

Baltimore Oriole sings and shares 
culture across generations.
proudly showing how 
her tee shirt and leggings 
depict Oriole colorways.

Red Shouldered Hawk 
serves lemon nectar 
and stories of community service
while steadying a palate 
that threatens to tumble 
into the artist's lap.

A garden of smiles 
bloom on the faces 
of these valued guests, 
assisted living residents 
who enjoy the visit 
of a flock 
of native chirping birds, 
a troop of doers, 
helpers, leaders, 
artists, inventors, 
confidants. 

The birds who swirl 
around the long room 
looking for people to help, 
or wooden houses to hold, 
now break into 
a long-shared song: 

\ud83c\udfb6\ud83c\udfb6Make New Friends
But Keep the Old
One is Silver
And the Other\u2019s Gold<\/em> \ud83c\udfb6\ud83c\udfb6

And a handful of matriarchs join in, 
warbling at the ring of girls 
dressed as birds
from their seats at the art tables:

\ud83c\udfb6\ud83c\udfb6 A Circle is round
It has no end; 
That\u2019s how Long
I wish to Be your Friend! <\/em>\ud83c\udfb6\ud83c\udfb6

Generations come and go
but the branches will always sway,
winged creatures will always flutter,
and the Scouts will always 
be the roots of any healthy ecosystem.
<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cSongbirds,\u201d an observation of Generation Alpha and Boomers intermingling over art and song and local birds. Written Monday, June 08, poem 159 in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo: “Bird House,” by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[1380,1382,1374,1367,1371,1383,1369,1370,1377,1390,1379,1384,177,1288,1388,1386,1378,1373,1385,1372,1381,1389,1387,1368,1375,1376],"class_list":["post-1858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-2026-poetry-challenge","category-poems","tag-assisted-living","tag-baltimore-oriole","tag-birdhouse","tag-birds","tag-blue-jay","tag-boomers","tag-cardinal","tag-dove","tag-downy-woodpecker","tag-ecosystem","tag-elders","tag-generation-alpha","tag-generations","tag-june","tag-make-new-friends","tag-matriarchs","tag-mourning-dove","tag-painter","tag-pigment","tag-red-shouldered-hawk","tag-scouts","tag-silver-and-gold","tag-song","tag-songbirds","tag-tufted-titmouse","tag-yellow-bellied-finch"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1858"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1896,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1858\/revisions\/1896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dianaludwick.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}