Inspiratonal

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

I love to watch and hear birds. For me, though, (yes, even after the skylark) the robin has to be the most inspirational.

Most if not all of us of us discover at some time or another that parting is, indeed, a sweet sorrow; the sweeter for happy memories that continue to sustain us.

I first read this poem by Emily Dickinson while reading English and American Literature at the University of Kent in Canterbury way back in 1971; it has been one of my favourite poems ever since, also inspiring some of my own, not least the one below.

“If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.” 

Emily Dickinson

INSPIRATIONAL

In a field of snow, I thought I saw

red berries on the branches of a tree,

but homing in, I discovered

it was but the breast of a lone robin

calling out to me

Robin, living in the hope of spring,

where love grows in a field of dreams,

though snow lay on the ground,

Earth Mother’s way of preserving

any kinder options

I stumbled, watching the robin fly

all but blindly, nor was I even looking

for hope to kindle my soul;

you took that with you when you left

along with spring

How my legs found the will to move

I can only guess was to honour the bird

as it returned, its bitter-sweet song

at a twilight in shreds for winter’s claws,

the loneliest ever heard

It was then you put your hand in mine,

and I lay my weary head on your shoulder,

as against all odds we staggered home

together, just as we had sworn ever to stay

through growing older

At the door of our house, we parted,

a glorious light in your eyes like a rainbow

among my tears you wiped dry

with the same hand that still wore my ring,

a guiding light in the snow

I thought I heard you speak my name

then saw it was but the wings of my robin

vanishing where yet I dare not go

but would, in time, just as those same tears

had followed your coffin

If a robin can see the cruelty of winter through,

be sure we lovers, though parted, can too

Copyright R. N. Taber 2010; 2020

[Note: An earlier version of this poem appears under the title 'The Robin' in On the Battlefields of Love by  R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2010.]