Tuesday Poem

I was hesitant to join in the Tuesday Poem when it started, as I didn't want to commit to posting a new poem every Tuesday. It would mean either that I would have to have a new one of my own, or one by another poet, either well known enough to me to get copyright permission, or one that was out of copyright. I wasn't sure that I could keep coming up with another one that I liked every week to fit those restrictions.

And then the group filled up, as they restrict themselves to thirty members at a time. But that doesn't mean that I can't post a poem on Tuesdays if I feel like it, or link to the Tuesday Poem site either.

I found a lovely book at the library - The Bedside Book of Birds edited by Graeme Gibson who is, incidentally, Margaret Atwood's husband. I have a bit of a thing for birds at the moment, and can't help wondering if it is something to do with living in New Zealand, which is a land of birds, which take the place of mammals in our ecosystem.

In the book I found this extract from a Portuguese writer Alberto Caeiro, who lived from 1879 - 1915 (and must therefore be out of copyright by now)

Rather the flight of the bird passing and leaving no trace
Than creatures passing, leaving tracks on the ground.
The bird goes by and forgets, which is as it should be.
The creature, no longer there, and so, perfectly useless,
Shows it was there - also perfectly useless.

Remembering betrays Nature.
Because yesterday's Nature is not Nature.
What's past is nothing and remembering is not seeing.

Fly bird, fly away; teach me to disappear.