Black Hills Audubon Society

A Song Beyond Words

Blown by an icy wind the bird yet clings
to wintry branch, and listen how he sings...
of joy you say? The bird would disagree.
He sings of hunger and how late will be
the nesting season if this cold should keep
the sap from rising, and the trees asleep.
He sings of ownership; although it's not
much he that owns, he'll fight to keep the lot.

Now warm behind our window pane we sing
of love and family and joys they bring
and of our home, our country; how we'd fight
for what we own and what we see as right!
Ah, what a song we sing, we and that bird -
the oldest song the world has ever heard.

by Judie Peet

Judy Peet is a birder from Dubbo, central western New South Wales, Australia. A lifelong naturalist, Judy was converted to birding about 17 years ago by other bird fanatics. Until then she couldn't understand how any sane person would stand perfectly still for long periods of time, looking at a tiny bird, just to put a name to it! Since then she has worked in a few bird related projects aimed at raising public awareness about the serious decline of many of our best loved birds. Her work has involved travelling about and talking to farmers about ways to protect natural habitat on farmland for the benefit of both agriculture and wildlife. She also speaks regularly on radio about birds. Reading and writing poetry is another lifelong interest so it was inevitable that she would write bird poetry once she became involved in serious birdwatching.

Send your poetry to pelican@vei.net if you would like to publish on this page