“Don’t believe the chaffinch,” my mother told me,
hands slack in linen tangles.
“They know so little of our world,
so little of your world,
so little of any world men tread.
Imagine always looking up,
or always looking down,
never along stranger scopes.
Can you imagine a world without level understanding,
without eye-to-eye,
without seeing as another person does?
As another person can?
How can the chaffinch think?
They have no lessons, no masters, no books!
Their nature divides them from us,
but we divine their nature,
we divine our own!
And might we mistake in our proclaims
and could a chaffinch be other,
other than what we divine if there were books?”
Written for The Daily Prompt – Surreal
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Published by Carol J Forrester
Carol J Forrester is a writer and a history geek. Her debut collection 'It's All In The Blood' came out November 2019.
She has a 2:1 BA degree in history from Bath Spa University, enjoys judo at least twice a week, and tries to attend poetry events around the Midlands when she can.
Her flash fiction story ‘Glorious Silence’ was named as River Ram Press’ short story of the month for August 2014 and her short story ‘A Visit From The Fortune Teller’ has been showcased on the literary site Ink Pantry. Her poems ‘Sunsets’ and ‘Clear Out‘ were featured on Eyes Plus Words, and two of her poems were included in the DVerse Poets Pub Publication ‘Chiaroscuro’ which is available for purchase on amazon.Her poem ‘Until The Light Gets In‘ was accepted and published at The Drabble and her poem ‘Newborn’ was published by Ink Sweat & Tears.
She has been lucky enough to write guest posts for sites such as Inky Tavern and Song of The Forlorn and has hosted a number of guest bloggers on her site Writing and Works.
View all posts by Carol J Forrester
Beautifully written poetry with a beautiful sentiment.
I was once watching my bird table when this happened…
the crazy Chaffinch
with all the sky to choose from ~
flew at the window
I’ve had that happen, scared the living daylights out of me.
Brilliant poem! Now crows in a murder on the other hand…quite a different story…
Indeed it is, much more sinister. Thanks for the comment.
I really really like this. I love how you use an animal as seemingly simple as a bird to highlight our attempts as humans to interpret things we can’t know. At least that’s how I read your poem. Anyway, it’s really a great piece of writing!
Thank you, this is the exact sort of feedback that I wanted to receive about this poem.
It’s nice to see how closely your interpretation ran to my own intentions in writing this.
First of all, I want to thank you for the visit to my site. Then come here to return it and find this wonderfully woven tale about human behavior as seen from a bird’s eye view. Thought you might be interested in a recent post I did, a bit of mythos concerning hawks and other things,
http://soulsmusic.wordpress.com/2014/02/21/love-loves-difficult-things/
Thanks again and I really like your poem,
Elizabeth
http://soulsmusic.wordpress.com
Thank you for the comment and I’ll make sure to stop by and check out your post.
I adore this. That is all I can think to say. 🙂
Thank you very much, that’s really lovely to hear.