Sunflower Songs but no Van Gogh

"If I remember the sunflower forest it is because from its hidden reaches man arose. The green world is his sacred center. In moments of sanity he must still seek refuge there." — Loren Eiseley

Sunflowers for a Friend
Stephen B. Watley

THE SUNFLOWER SONG 

by Loren Eiseley

When the red cardinal comes to the window ledge, I feed him
sunflower seeds that's brought from places that I know
and he will never see:   waste fields far west
drear country that I own
nor can I relinquish it ~ my brain, that is, my brain that holds
this lifetime setting in a city street.  The cardinal lifts his crest
and recognizes
seed he's never seen upon a flower, knows how to split them,
flies off, and presently, it being spring, his voice floats down,
"cheer,    cheer,"
with many other

Sunrise over Sunflowers
Aaeannao Na&#

trills and soft whistles all intent on shepherding

some cardinal lady into this year's nest. The sound

comes down to me. I think upon these seeds now being spun

by some adroit bird magic into notes that move

more than a bird's heart. Oh dear God, how far

the golden yellow of the sunflowers now, far off as youth, far off

by twice a thousand miles, and faces lost

deep in the sunflower thickets underneath the loam.

Sunflowers by Nino

This bird sings on high in the apple tree, the notes sprinkle the ground like petals, like all springs that went awry a score of years ago and twist the heart with sweet blind pain and
unresolved regret I tell myself

it is the seeds that sing, that, without seeds,

the cardinal could not sing, and seeds are brought

up from the leaf mould underneath the dark, formed, shaped

within a flower's heart, encased and strewn

for any bird, like those piano scrolls we pumped at in our youth,

the music sounding

all through the house, so here the brisk red cardinal

sings a bright sunflower song dissolving

Cardinal by Poppy


the sullen silence of this eastern spring. I think this bird a miracle to so transform a seed, but then I think the flower also a miracle and so work down to earth, the one composer no one has ever seen but all have heard."Cheer," I say it on the page, "cheer, cheer," my fingers stiff. I eat one of his sunflower seeds and try
again.

Sunflowers by Jedzer

And finally...

with all this fanciful talk and imagery of sunflowers, there must be music for sunflowers

and here it is...