Hi Sally,
What great mouh music you've got here! The list  of bird names sets up the 
rest of the poem in a soft flow of sounds, a joy to read aloud and savour 
the rhythms.
I also love the line: "sit up from boredom" because it creates so much 
context for the poem. (Although not the only image it conjures up, I can 
visualise some bored class at school, all in white blouses and shiorts and 
so looking a little like the flamingoes, all corralled up in the 
classroom...)
Bob
(Who thought the Manfred Mann song Pretty Flamingo was sentimental tosh, not 
worth playing on any juke box, a far cry from the surreal style and energy 
the band had when they started! But this is another subject altogether...)

>From: sally evans <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: The Pennine Poetry Works <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Poem for Unesco World Poetry Day
>Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 17:22:24 +0000
>
>Poem for Unesco World Poetry Day
>
>Six Kinds of Flamingoes
>
>Lesser Flamingo
>Greater Flamingo
>CHilean Flamingo
>James Flamingo
>Andean Flamingo
>Caribbean Flamingo
>
>A map of the world
>with the spidery outline
>of flattened coasts
>on glazed white paper,
>a lesser relation
>to the great wide globe.
>Hatching and colour
>from chalk and nibs
>pool it with puddles
>on the southern continents,
>the horns of Africa,
>India, Chile,
>land masses, Asia,
>south America,
>northern Africa.
>
>Sit up from boredom!
>The six different
>kinds of flamingoes
>in these corrals.
>
>Lesser Flamingo
>Greater Flamingo
>Chilean Flamingo
>James Flamingo
>Andean Flamingo
>Caribbean Flamingo
>
>and there are their heads
>in various reds,
>brown or  yellow beaks
>with black or orange streaks,
>pink or purple, peach or puce
>are these distinctions any use?
>
>Probable end of poem
>
>Sally Evans