Tracks photo by Daniel Kehlenbach
The legendary Cang Jie was said to
have invented writing after observing
the tracks of birds
A light snow last night,
and now the earth falls open to a fresh page.
A high wind is breaking up the clouds.
Children wait for the yellow bus in a huddle,
and under the feeder, some birds
are busy writing short stories,
poems, and letters to their mothers.
A crow is working on an editorial.
That chickadee is etching a list,
and a robin walks back and forth
composing the opening to her autobiography.
All so prolific this morning,
these expressive little creatures,
and each with an alphabet of only two letters.
A far cry from me watching
in silence behind a window wondering
what just frightened them into flight –
a dog’s bark, a hawk overhead?
or had they simply finished
saying whatever it was they had to say?
***
Should poets get a pass on anthropomorphism?
Our relationships to other beings is complex. We've probably used animals as stand-in for human behavior as long as people have told stories. At the same time stories and poems may be attempts at a better understanding of animals and their behavior.
Our understanding of animal intelligence has begun to come out of the dark ages of behaviorism. We are far from getting into the heads of other creatures – and probably never will – but I think it safe to say that birds are not thinking as Collins colorfully paints them.
Billy Collins is one of America's most popular poets, accessible through the use of easy to understand descriptive language, humor, and sometimes deceptively simple ideas. See how in the final stanzas he turns from fanciful imagination to the very real world that separates us from birds. Speculating about a poem's meaning or a poet's intent is fraught with peril; I won't attempt it here. I just enjoy the whimsy that comes from simple observations. I hope you find some pleasure here, and maybe even use some close observation of birds for your own growth, poetic or otherwise.
Ornithography
Billy Collins, Ballistics, Random House, 2008
John Elliot
John is a CAS Board member and long-time birder. He leads bird walks, and is a font of local conservation knowledge as a former naturalist and education manager for the Forest Preserves of Cook County.
