When the world bangs its bass drum,
think of the quiet trill of the hummingbird’s wings.
Show me the person who does not smile
as it weaves and dips over the red bee balm.
That a thing so small can fill us with delight
speaks to how little we need to be happy.
Give us a seat to absorb nature’s offering.
We’ll heal in a beat of the hummingbird’s heart.
—
Cynthia Knorr is the author of A Vessel of Furious Resolve (Finishing Line Press, 2019). Her poems have appeared in an array of poetry journals. After a career as a medical writer in New York City, she relocated to rural New Hampshire where she enjoys listening to the birds and tramping through the woods. She serves on the editorial staff of the poetry journal Touchstone, is a 2025 Best of the Net nominee, and was longlisted for the 2024 Sappho Prize for Women Poets.
