Dawn Callers
By Alberto Ríos
The dawn callers and morning bringers,
I hear them as they intend themselves to be heard,
Quick sonic sparks in the morning dark,
Hard at the first work of building the great fire.
The soloist rooster in the distance,
The cheeping wrens, the stirring, gargling pigeons
Getting ready for the work of a difficult lifetime,
The first screet of the peahen in the far field,
All of it a great tag-of-sounds game engaging even the owls,
The owls with their turned heads and everything else that is animal.
Then, too, the distant thunder of the garbage truck,
That lumbering urban whale.
Through it all, the mourning doves say
There, there—which is to say, everything is all right.
I believe them. They have said this to me ever since childhood.
I hear them. I hear them and I get up.
From Not Go Away is My Name.
Copper Canyon Press, 2020. Buy the book here.
It can be useful and centering to meditate on the sounds that begin our days, becoming attuned to certain birdsongs or noises of the human-made world. In this poem, Alberto Ríos employs a playfulness with language to convey what calls down and brings the morning for him. He describes the calls of birds as “quick sonic sparks in the morning dark,” and the internal rhyme of “sparks” and “dark” as well as all of those hard “k” sounds might make us see chunks of flint being struck against each other so that the words themselves illustrate the image of sparks which they bring to life. He also characterizes all of what he hears around him as “a great tag-of-sounds game,” perhaps suggesting that this is a practice for him each morning, waking and naming all of the things and people that “intend themselves to be heard.” He invites us too to make this a habit for ourselves, and to sense in the presence of these things that announce themselves each morning a sort of promise that, as the mourning doves suggest for him, “everything is all right.” Rituals like this can provide comfort, especially when our minds run away with some overwhelming worry or fear. We can simply pause as he does, and return to the moment, allowing the sounds of this world to welcome us back.
Invitation for Writing & Reflection: Take some time out of the morning simply to notice all of the sounds around you which announce the new day. What can you name? What brings you comfort and a sense of welcome as you listen and identify the source of all those ritual noises, whether you enjoy them or not, that greet you each morning?
Photo of Alberto Ríos by Andy DeLisle/ASU
ABOUT THE POET: ALBERTO RÍOS
Alberto Ríos was named Arizona’s first Poet Laureate in 2013. He is the author of many poetry collections, including A Small Story About the Sky (Copper Canyon Press, 2015), The Dangerous Shirt (Copper Canyon Press, 2009); The Theater of Night (Copper Canyon Press, 2006); and The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body (Copper Canyon Press, 2002), which was nominated for the National Book Award.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: JAMES CREWS
James Crews is the author of four collections of poetry: The Book of What Stays, Telling My Father, Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment. He is also the editor of two anthologies: Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and have been reprinted in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry and featured on Tracy K. Smith’s podcast, The Slowdown. James teaches at SUNY-Albany and lives with his husband in Vermont.
FURTHER EXPLORATION
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