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Waiting for a Crisis

       Pair Bonds

       First Mourning Dove

       Enlistment Day, 1942

       Window Washer

       Thrush at Her Elbow

       II YARD VIEWS

       Ivy Watch

       Watching the Wind

       Storm Warning

       Wind Shower

       Silent Song

       No Turmoil

       Fresh Snow

       Late Winter Storm Warning

       Magic Show

       Watering Spell

       The Watchers

       Best View Yet

       Acrobatic Wren

       Delayed Migrant

       Contrast

       Worth a Try

       Spring Surprise

       Early Unsettled Spring

       One More May Surprise

       Drinking From Daisies

       Gold On Gold

       Just My Luck

       Feeding Wild Birds

       Misty Morning Surprise

       Minor Movement

       Face-Off

       Footprints

       Just That Simple

       III MEADOW LINES

       Rescued

       Berry Picking

       Free Treat

       Walking Stick

       Thin Red Line

       Mausoleum

       Territorial Imperative

       Down by the Willows

       The Absence of Snow

       Repossessed

       Unexpected Closeness

       IV SOCIAL NOTES

       Night Encounter, Edmonton

       One Glimpse Enough

       Lady With Legs

       Unexpected Goal

       The Lesson

       Farewell to April

       Wise Choice

       Bright Moment

       Rainy Day

       V COUNTRY OUTINGS

       Highway Casualty

       Festive Trash

       Monarch Lanterns

       Follow the Leader

       Daringly Close

       Hot July Day

       Watching the Train Go By

       Passer Domesticus

       New Species?

       Winter Nest

       About the Author

       Tributes to Lady Grayl

Preface

      Thanks are once again owed to Barry and Jane Penhale for encouragement in bringing together this new selection of poems, most of which were written since 1994. What a thrill, even to be considering another book of poetry, let alone to be selecting pieces for this fourth collection. It is an exciting and rewarding process. First Woman By the Shore, then The Mulch Pile, followed by Spring Again, all wonderfully published by Natural Heritage. I am reminded that this all began with correspondence between Louise de Kiriline Lawrence (1894-1992) and myself. Thanks to publisher Barry Penhale, Louise Lawrence’s various books are still available. In February 1998, Victor Friesen, author of The Year is a Circle: A Celebration of Henry David Thoreau, also by Natural Heritage, and now in its second printing, wrote to me as follows: “I’ve enjoyed your Woman by the Shore which I bought at the nature conference [Canadian Nature Federation] in Winnipeg—nice glimpses of the avian world, and ours. What’s more, it got me reading Louise Lawrence’s books. I’ve now read four of them. Most of us live one distinct lifetime. She lived several.” Indeed, and I hope that this reminder will encourage others to investigate and enjoy Louise Lawrence’s works.

      There is a further connection here—in a 1994 issue of the Canadian Field-Naturalist journal, there appears a piece under this title: “Louise de Kiriline Lawrence (1894-1992) and the World of Nature: A Tribute.” I recommend it highly. It was written by Marianne G. Ainley, Concordia University, Montreal. I was pleasantly surprised to find this comment in Dr. Ainley’s acknowledgments: “I am grateful to Bob Nero for the inspiration he gave to Louise in her old age….” And for the inspiration Louise still gives me, see Just My Luck in this book.

      It will be seen that my writing often revolves around my dear wife, Ruth, constant companion of 57 wedded years. Also, I have been fortunate in the number of people who have encouraged me to write. Poet Mary Ann Rodewald (and a Ph.D. in City Planning) gave me permanent standing in the poem “A New Year” in her 1979 collection, Al Sirat, writing: “You are shy at times. And hide in parentheses./You are brazen on occasion/And risk the role/of a fool.”

      Ruth has long supported my involvement with birds, from my graduate studies of the Red-winged Blackbird in the late forties to my interest in Great Gray Owls after we moved to Winnipeg in 1966. Almost the entire family helped me build nest-platforms to attract Great Grays. Even today, one of those nests, checked annually by my protegé—Dr. Jim Duncan—is appropriately called the “Ruth nest” because of her involvement. The Nero family relationship with owls gained a new intensity beginning in 1985 with my use of a tame Great Gray Owl for educational purposes, a story nicely covered in my book, Lady Grayl: Owl With a Mission,

      Admittedly, I derive a lot of satisfaction in responses to my writings, sending off copies of poems almost as often as I write letters to friends and acquaintances, delighting in the replies. The reception the poem “Growing old together” received largely motivated me to select this piece as the title poem for this collection. Here are three examples: “Loved it!! It engendered some poignant musings, indeed.” That, from Manitoba wildlife specialist Bob Carmichael. And from a pen pal in Wisconsin, Jennifer Nieland, “So if someone asks me ‘Jennifer, how do you feel about…?’ I’ll just say: ‘I feel Growing old together by Robert Nero’—and the person would know what I meant! How does that work? I think you should have such a collection of the Growing old together. I really felt that poem, and I think that you have captured a woman’s feeling.”

      “Revelations of Ruth—Part II” continues the theme that appeared in my previous book, Spring Again. If I was hesitant to use these bits of our lives, Ruth was almost adamant that they

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