My OLW, Feather, comes up in so many poems. Feathers are inherently poetic and beautiful: here are some links that illustrate that.
In this poem, a lost feather from a thrush features. Sometimes lost feathers indicate an injured or dead bird. Recently we found a pile of feathers from a guinea fowl. A man nearby told us that he had found the bird dead; perhaps it had been killed by an animal. But birds do replace their feathers multiple times during their life cycle, and as long as the bird is alive, feathers do grow back. Not that the process of moulting is easy; this link from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds explains more.
All of that to say that the "mutilated world" of the poem, while difficult and full of struggle, is still beautiful. After the poem, I'm including the Over the Rhine song "All of My Favorite People Are Broken," which quotes a line from the poem.
Try to Praise the Mutilated World
by Adam Zagajewski
Try to praise the mutilated world.
Remember June's long days,
and wild strawberries, drops of rosé wine.
The nettles that methodically overgrow
the abandoned homesteads of exiles.
Here's the rest, including the part about the feather.
10 comments:
What a good poem for today. I love Zagajewski's work. Thank you.
How beautiful this poem is...with such odd images that my imagination loves trying to see.
Wow. Ruth, this poem has blown my mind. I'm thinking if we don't praise all of it, if we get in too much of a habit of only praising the beautiful parts, we are missing out. It's hard. I'll be thinking more about why the ugliness seems to have to exist, and how we can acknowledge it and still praise it--the world. Also, I'm off to listen to this song...hasn't been announced yet, but I recently sold a picture book dealing with brokenness...Thanks, Ruth!
The world with all its troubles, still our world to love. Thanks, Ruth, and for the song, too!
Ruth, Thanks for sharing this beautiful poem with us. It's full of imagery, some very sad. I also love feathers. Some of the jewelry I make features feathers...I think it's a universal symbol. Carol from The Apples in My Orchard.
Thank you for sharing this poem. It is so beautiful and haunting. I will try to praise this mutilated world and see the wonders through the cracks.
Such a beautiful image... the praise of a mutilated world. I feel that pull often, to look directly at what is difficult and see it as part of the whole. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing this poem. We accept joy along with loss. Our lives are part of something miraculous and complicated.
I think we ought to praise it broken and all while we are all still here, thanks Ruth!
Hello Ruth,
Appreciations for bringing us this reckoning with what's broke. You are so immediately every minute conscious of what is unhealed & needy in the world. This intuitive poet is a gift to the world, as are you.
Jan
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