Peom* (for Poem, etc.)

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

"We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,"
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.

Oliver Herford

A number of years ago, I received a gift inscribed with the first verse of this poem. I was at the time living in my native state of Ohio, where the winters were indeed dark and dreary, and I treasured the image these words evoked. Today, I still recall them fondly whenever I see the birds enjoying a (somewhat rare) snowy day at the feeders in our front yard.

Alas, the high-probability typo Peom* will produce no warm feelings in the hearts of catalog searchers. There are 22 occurrences of it in OhioLINK English-language entries (35 overall), and some may be lurking in your own database too.

(Northern Cardinal by Thomas G. Barnes, NCTC Image Library, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

Deb Kulczak