Day of the Sparrow

"The day was forecast hot and muggy, but its A.M. was still fresh. Red-winged blackbirds rasped in the reeds. Blue herons squawked in for gawky landings at Shorter Point, across Sherritt Cove, from which rose wraiths of mist. Resting her feet on a footstool and a clipboard on her belly, Kath gave the next half-hour to another sort of exercise: First-Level Improvisations from a drill book . . . 

A wise old owl sat in an oak.

The more he saw, the less he spoke,

The less he spoke, the more he heard. . .  

Let's emulate that wise old bird."

- John Barth, from The Tidewater Tales, pg. 36 (although the final line of the quatrain doesn't appear until page 542). 

The Zen of Barth, or the Zen of tidewater wisdom.