Finding Life
When the sparrow fell from the fence post
And thrashed about in the tangled brambles
My heart rushed forward — leapt out of
my mouth
And my 12-year-old body followed.
B-B gun hurled to ground
I ripped thorns and leaves frantic to rescue
What I had just destroyed
Chest throbbing, ears roaring
Elation turned horrible
Wild pity drove me to find the life
That was not yet gone
What I might do, I couldn’t think
The sparrow evaporated into silence
I, too, stilled
Stood stunned, beneath the sky
By the trees who had witnessed my murder
And was changed
Garth Gilchrist
Lovely!! A gentle version of “Thinking Like a Mountain” by Aldo Leopold.
Garth,
When I was 14 I unthinkingly hurled a stone at a small bird outside my cabin at summer camp, not thinking that I would ever hit it. To my horror, the stone hit the bird and killed it. I felt an incredible sense of remorse as I stood over the bird praying that somehow it would revive. Your story brought back to life that memory and the lesson I took from that moment in time:All life is sacred..
Iz
Such a sensitive soul!
It strikes me that the tiny birds at Taos brought you the same message as the silence of the one you shot years earlier. But now you are ready to hear the Silence.
Love to you!
Beautiful poetry from a deep feeling soul! I was about to dump this unknown email address into my spam file, but even the first paragraph alerted me to the fact SOMEONE had a gift for words….thanks!