[poem] And so the seasons

[kaberett]

How is it that so very great a gift
can be as fragile, tiny, tenuous as this:
this sun-bleached bird skull, feather-light,
caught in protecting nets emplaced
from June til autumn (dawn til dusk).
Nearby: a poised and outspread wing,
tenacity of tenderness made flesh.
Unwieldy metaphor, perhaps, and yet--
and yet. O best belov'd: take flight.


(It is the lightness of your embrace
that will let me go adrift. -- Meg Bateman)

Comments

[calissa]

<3

[kaberett]

♥!

[calissa]

Now that I'm a bit more well rested... the reason I liked this so much was that I felt it connected well with the season (and the passing of the season). Yesterday was drenched in sunlight and this poem seemed to be, too, though I couldn't quite say why.

[vass]

That is the loveliest poem about a dead bird I've read in years.

[kaberett]

:-)

[vass]

Now that I think about it, the only other dead bird poem I know is about a dying bird, not a dead bird. So yours is in a class of its own.

A.D. Hope's 'Death of the Bird'.

[kaberett]

It is in dialogue w/ another poem, which I will find/type up for you when I get home!

Fleur Adcock -- Advice to a Discarded Lover.

[vass]

*reads* Yeah. I can hear what she's saying but it didn't work for me as well as yours did, because my reaction on seeing a maggoty dead bird wouldn't be pitiless revulsion. It'd be one part pity/distress/sorrow, one part needing/wanting/not-wanting to bear witness. Which still works as a metaphor for a dead relationship, but it's a different reaction.

The dog tugged me by the lead
To where you a bird
Were left for the birds

I held her back
But was drawn like her
To your sky burial

Compelled by the writhing life
Bringing you down to earth
Arranging, rearranging
Composing, decomposing

I wrenched myself away
By tugging on the lead.
Here is no place to stop,
Nothing but ill humours.

[kaberett]

<3333

Thank you.

[alexseanchai]

poor bird

[kaberett]

As far as we can tell, a hawk got it.

[inoru_no_hoshi]

I like the almost sad wistfulness of this, yet there's a thread of hope and wonder winding gently through. <33