Two hundred and thirty-one years ago on 13 July 1793 was born John Clare, the Northamptonshire Peasant Poet. His poems were of a bucolic nature, pleasing in their natural simplicity. And today we may apply this attribute to our poet Paul Allchin, who writes that ‘Birds’ is about our relationship to ourselves and who we can become, symbolising our many selves and our single current self. It is Day 587 of the daily poems.
Birds
A chorus of little birds
chirped and sang,
on the branches of a tall oak tree.
Above them they admired,
a beautiful, slender, colourful bird,
with a divine voice, who could fly high in the sky.
The little birds all yearned to be that bird.
They squabbled; how could they reach him?
They all envied him and felt so inferior.
The little birds stretched their wings,
yet could not reach their idol.
In despair they talked themselves into a rut.
As time passed and the sun came out,
the little birds saw themselves from
another angle, seeing who they had become –
that beautiful bird flying high amongst the heavens!
Paul Allchin