Words and Thoughts, for Life
“The swan uplifts his chest, and backward flings
from Wordsworth, ‘An Evening Walk’
His neck, a varying arch, between his towering wings…
While tender cares and mild domestic loves
With furtive watch pursue her as she moves,
The female with a meeker charm succeeds,
And her brown little-ones around her leads”
Not much can be added to Wordsworth’s beautiful lines about swans, except for this photograph of a beautiful swan family, matching much of Wordsworth’s description, recently seen at Atcham.
Photographing this swan was a real blessing, and I then read a beautiful poem by Mary Oliver about another of these majestic creatures:
“Did you see it in the morning, rising into the silvery air, an armful of white blossoms,
A perfect commotion of silk and linen as is leaned into the bondage of its wings: a snowbank, a bank of lilies…
A white cross streaming across the sky, its feet like black leaves, its wings like the stretching light of the river?
And did you feel it in your heart, how it pertained to everything?
And have you too finally figures out what beauty is for?
And have you changed your life?”
from ‘Swan’ by Mary Oliver
In July, I was walking by the River Severn in Shropshire and encountered a group of beautiful swans, as photographed below. They were a glorious sight and I tried to capture the moment in this poem:
~
A glory of swans
On the River Severn
As if heaven
Could be found here
In this place
On earth
As if this moment
Was pre-ordained
From before
All birth.
Here and now
On the River Severn.
~
Birds teach us about freedom, so we should make room in our hearts for them!
This is a message I have taken away from Mary Oliver’s amazing poem with the mundane title ‘Storage’. She talks about clutter she kept in storage as she moved from one place to another, and how all these things eventually meant so little to her that they could all be burned in a “beautiful fire”!
I love the conclusion of this poem:
“More room in your heart for love,
for the trees! For the birds who own
nothing – the reason they can fly.“
from ‘Storage’
On the River Severn, there is so much wonderful wild bird life – the swans…
the goosanders…
the swifts…
They fly, and they own nothing.
We seem to want own more and more as human beings.
But do any of our possessions help our souls to love, or to fly?
Mary Oliver’s poetry celebrates the wonders of nature, and I love this poem by hers, called “Whistling Swans”. Here are some of its wonderful lines:
“Even when the swans are flying north and making
such a ruckus of noise, God is surely listening and understanding.
Rumi said, There is no proof of the soul.
But isn’t the return of the spring and how it
springs up in our hearts a pretty good hint?”
from “Whistling Swans” by Mary Oliver
I recently witnessed – not whistling swans – but geese, making “such a ruckus of noise” at Polemere nature reserve, just off the Pontesbury Road. There was also a huge flock of lapwing, who displayed themselves both in the air and on the ground.
Spring is definitely returning, and springing up in hearts in Shropshire, as snowdrops and even daffodils are starting to appear.
I hope that either nature, or Mary Oliver’s lines, will make something spring up in your heart by the time you have finished reading this post.
Greylag geese in flight, Polemere nature reserve, Shropshire, February 2022
Mary Oliver’s poetry celebrates the wonders of nature, and I love this poem by hers, called “Whistling Swans”. Here are some of its wonderful lines:
“Even when the swans are flying north and making
such a ruckus of noise, God is surely listening and understanding.
Rumi said, There is no proof of the soul.
But isn’t the return of the spring and how it
springs up in our hearts a pretty good hint?”
from “Whistling Swans” by Mary Oliver
I recently witnessed – not whistling swans – but geese, making “such a ruckus of noise”.
And spring is definitely returning, and springing up in hearts in Shropshire…
I hope that either nature, or Mary Oliver’s lines, will make something spring up in your heart by the time you have finished reading this post.
Greylag geese in flight, Polemere nature reserve, Shropshire, February 2022
Lif4Gd 