Not So Silent Spring

I feel lucky
to wake up and hear the
intricate chattering of
multitudes of birds, as if
they’re telling each other
of their dreams dreamed last night
and their plans for the day.

Fortunately, spring is not silent
here in Silver Spring,
where Rachel Carson lived for
many years (while summering in Maine).
A past spring, my daughter and I
heard Linda Lear give a talk about
her biography of Ms. Carson
(after the talk was postponed due
to a snowstorm), and the room
was packed with eager listeners.

So Ms. Carson still talks on, with warnings
for those ears who still pay attention,
to our eyes thankful to see bald eagles
in their full-winged reality and not just
in a Google image search,
to our wishes and plans and work
for infinite springs
filled with chattering birds.

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copyright © 2021 Dave Williams

Two Roads

Rachel Carson lived for a time in Silver Spring, Maryland, and her work is celebrated in the town at a sculpture called Two Roads, after a passage from her famous book:

“We stand now where two roads diverge. But unlike the roads in Robert Frost’s familiar poem, they are not equally fair. The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at the end lies disaster.” — Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (1962)

This passage is shown on three panels at the sculpture, which can be tricky to read, since the panels are transparent, and another quote from Carson is printed on the other side. Studio William Cochran designed the sculpture.