I Am Not a Songbird

For the Dome Poetry group’s May meeting, our poetry assignment/poem is as follows

1.       We are each given a poetry book. (They are all different.)
2.       We each select a poem from the book that we like or dislike.
3.       We write our opinion of the poem in poetry form.
4.       We write a separate poem in the same style as the original…about any subject.
5.       OPTIONAL: Points 3 & 4 could be amalgamated. ie one poem

The poetry book I received was “The C.J. Dennis Collection.”… a famous Australian poet and author, known as “The Prince of Writers.”
I chose to amalgamate Points 3 & 4 and wrote my poem ‘I Am Not a Songbird’, in the rhyming style of C.J. Dennis’s whimsical poem “Heredity”, which I have scanned and attached below my poem.



I Am Not a Songbird

You may ask me (said the Corella)
Why am I so noisy and obnoxious
Like a protester with a loud hailer
At a meeting of the Labor Party Caucus

You may ask me why I’m not a songbird
Instead of a critter that’s always squawking
In a screeching way that no one else can hear
I offer no excuses for my chaotic talking

Yet, I’m all for a sweet lullaby
But for my breed, a soft tune is impossible
I’m often repetitive like a buzzing blowfly
However, I am quite pretty and aeronautical

My vocalisations are certainly unique
And it’s how I communicate with my girls
So, get used to my cheeky squeak
And enjoy my showy swirls and twirls









Ivor Steven (c) May 2025

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ivor20

G'day, and welcome to my blog site. My name is Ivor Steven, I live in Geelong, Australia. I'm an ex-industrial chemist, and a retired plumber, and a former Carer of my wife(Carole), for 30 years, who suffered from severe MS. I Write poetry about those personal thoughts, throughout and beyond my life as a Carer. I've been blogging for over 2 years, and writing poems for 19 years. Of course a lot of my poems are about my favourite subject Carole, but since I've been blogging my writings have become quite varied, humourous, mystical, observational, and even a few monster/horror poems.

25 thoughts on “I Am Not a Songbird”

    1. Thank you Violet, it took me a while to formulate the poem… I thought C. J Dennis’s Heredity was whimsically brilliant … I’m happy with my humorous effort 😍🌏😊

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  7. Beautiful photo!
    Wonderful prompt!
    Ivor, your poem is an excellent, enjoyable response to the poem Heredity!
    It brings smiles and giggles! 🙂
    Fabulous Fleetwood Mac song!
    Every birds voice is important in the world…whether singing, cooing, squawking, chirping, clucking, honking, gobbling, cawing, trilling, quaking, hoo-hooing, or etc! 🙂
    “Each bird must sing (or talk) with its own throat.” – Henrik Ibsen
    Same for us humans! 😉
    (((HUGS))) ❤️🐓🐦🦃🦆🦉🦜❤️

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    1. Thank you very much for your thoughtful comments, Derrick … of course C.J. Dennis’s poem is a witty masterpiece, and I’m pleased that you appreciated my attempt to emulate his rhythmical style …

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    1. Thank you very much, Robbie … indeed a very unique prompt for our group and it’ll be an interesting meeting next Sunday… the members are exceptional poets 📖📘🌏

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    1. Thank you Nancy … sorry for the slow reply, I’m having a busy day, flying around in the clouds, trying to get my feet back on the ground … I’ve just booked my flight ✈️ to Canada (Vancouver Island) …🛬😍🌏💕📖

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