The Friday Poem on 13/05/22
We chose Annie Fisher’s poem ‘What the owl said to me’ to be this week’s Friday Poem because it seems to us to carry some kind of fundamental truth about our place in the natural world. From the opening reference to Descartes’ Cogito to the gentle but weighty closing tercet, every word feels in place, and the whole is deftly bound together with rhyme, alliteration and assonance. Fisher displays great technique and an enviable lightness of touch — we love it.
What the owl said to me
I blink, therefore I am.
The moon and stars despise your crude chronology.
The skylark’s ecstasy is the sparrowhawk’s breakfast.
If you’re scared of the dark, don’t sleep in the forest.
You’ll see no sunsets while the whole darn wood’s on fire.
My dreams are sweet as blood and claw-torn fur.
Trees and owls keep their counsel.
As the tree is known by its owl,
so the owl is known by its tree.
