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Every Day Poems

A Poem A Day

When I was a Bird–Katherine Mansfield

January 27, 2010 by Every Writer


I climbed up the karaka tree
Into a nest all made of leaves
But soft as feathers.
I made up a song that went on singing all by itself
And hadn’t any words, but got sad at the end.
There were daisies in the grass under the tree.
I said just to try them:
“I’ll bite off your heads and give them to my little
children to eat.”
But they didn’t believe I was a bird;
They stayed quite open.
The sky was like a blue nest with white feathers
And the sun was the mother bird keeping it warm.
That’s what my song said: though it hadn’t any words.
Little Brother came up the patch, wheeling his barrow.
I made my dress into wings and kept very quiet.
Then when he was quite near I said: “Sweet, sweet!”
For a moment he looked quite startled;
Then he said: “Pooh, you’re not a bird; I can see
your legs.”
But the daisies didn’t really matter,
And Little Brother didn’t really matter;
I felt just like a bird.

Related Poems:

  1. The Sleeper in the Valley–Arthur Rimbaud
  2. Nightpiece by James Joyce
  3. Be Strong by Maltbie Davenport Babcock
  4. THE MOON by William H. Davies
  5. To Myself by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
  6. Mist by Henry David Thoreau
  7. Tears Fall In My Heart by Paul Verlaine
  8. Nightingales by Robert Bridges
  9. The Vampire by James Clerk Maxwell 1845
  10. Friendship by Henry David Thoreau

Filed Under: 1800s Poetry, Classic Poems, Nature Poems

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