suntannedapples

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

A bird will come and perch

on the most crooked branch

to swallow the longest thorn

and sing in its lifetime

a single song only once and die.

Remember, we who happen to hear it sing,

its first and the last song

it had searched long far and wide

for a place to build a nest.

It built its home here on a branch

of this skeletal tree,

the tree which went dry

in the waiting till the destined bird came

summoned by the season's call.

János Szabó added a new photo to the album: Erdőm.

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My Forest 32f - © lightTailor 2023

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All reactions:

Françoise Dhulesia, Daniele Chany and 6 others

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Françoise Dhulesia

In here, "sing in its lifetime

a single song only once and die", I have found some analogy with the excerpt from The Thorn Birds by Colleen McCullough shared today by Daniele Chany. In the poem, I like how you play with tenses, starting with the future in "a bird will come" like a prophecy, or something bound to happen inevitably. The use of the imperative in "Remember", as a direct address to an unknown, undefined interlocutor, the reader maybe, brings the narrative back into a distant past as if to prove a point. An opportunity for the poetess to create a Russian dolls narrative, a story within a story. The crooked branch of the beginning becomes the skeletal tree to which the bird will give life! I am impressed by the construction of the poem and the beauty of its narrative! Sushama Karnik