Sunday 23 August 2015

Miracle


Dear Reader,

I remember being astonished when I heard of the amazing journey the swallow took when it left us in September, to literally fly round the world and home again.  This small bird is only the size of your hand but, enormously bravely, I think, sets off to fly thousands of miles around the Cape of Africa, over the Pyrenees and the Sahara Desert and returns here to England, and its original nest, in the spring.

Miracle

Rich in England's spring,
cowparsley entrancing
in dog-rosed hedge,
the fecund earth lush green,
a baby swallow
hatches in a Suffolk barn,
to the cries of gulls
flying over mudflats,
over sea-lavender.

This small bird grows
embracing our summer warmth,
swooping on insects caught
above rolling grasslands.
It dips and tumbles gracefully,
trouble-free.

But what instinct tells of winter's cold?
This bird, hand sized, will
fly over icy Pyrenees,
thirst through the parched Sahara,
soar and glide on trade winds,
south to The Cape of Africa
drawn, inexplicably, to the heat
of the southern sun.

In early spring does
this swallow's courageous heart
grow restless, homesick for
a Suffolk barn?
Is it a miracle that some force
of nature returns this minute bird
to its birth-nest by the English sea?
Who knows, but it seems so to me.

                      *

Musing for this week.....

This week there is another story of a bird, although why I keep paying attention to stories about birds is a bit of a mystery to me.  So this bird is called Chris and he is a cuckoo.  He was tagged and tracked so that the British Trust for Ornithology could see where he went on his 10,000 mile journey, before he returned here in the summer.  But he has gone missing, has disappeard altogether.  No one has seen him since August 8th, and everyone is very concerned.  For myself I expect he was fed up with being tagged, got loose and flew away to freedom.

 Best wishes, Patricia




3 comments:

  1. I think this is a miracle too - I find it such a joy to see a swallow first appear in the spring and slightly dread the last one leaving. Thank you for expressing it so sensitively.

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  2. Absolutely love it Trish, perhaps like the swallow we too should go on our yearly journey back to the sun and fill up our body, mind and spirit with light and warmth and return to this beautiful country that England is in the spring.
    Love your poems, you are so gifted!
    Your son in law, Px

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  3. Thank you so much Patrick for your comments. It is so lovely to get feedback, because, it is difficult to know whether the poems do touch the heart, do make the reader reflect a little on the content. Obviously this one did for you and I so agree that we too, should go on a yearly journey to the sun to fill ourselves, as you say, with light and warmth and return refreshed. Love to you, your mother in law, Trish xxx

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