JOURNAL 9

 ANONYMOUS

‘The Robin and the Redbreast’

The robin and the readbreast,

   The robin and the wren,

If you take them out of their nest,

   Ye’ll never thrive again.

The robin and the readbreast,

   The martin and the swallow;

If you touch one of their eggs,

   Ill luck is sure to follow.

The anonymous 2-stanza poem, “The Robin and the Redbreast” flirts with rhyme and meter as it issues sweet, simple rules toward our interaction with nature.  Although the lines never dip below a hexameter they provide a rushed sense of necessity in the information they offer.  The sing-songy sound makes these words available to a wide audience, but the final line may make or break that relationship, depending on the superstition of the reader (“ill fate is sure to follow”).

WENDELL BERRY

Prayer After Eating

I have taken in the light

that quickened eye and leaf.

May my brain be bright with praise

of what I eat, in the brief blaze

of motion and of thought.

May I be worthy of my meat.

In “Prayer after Eating,” Berry’s style and message are similar to those in “The Robin and the Redbreast,” and offer up an important message in a light and casual, but stick-with-you kind of way.  These poems instantly reminded me of the songs we were singing at EarthWalk. When I made this connection I could no longer read “Prayer After Eating” as a simple poem, but instead began to sing the phrases.  With a slight rearrangement in the lines and the addition of an extra word I formulated it into a song that is similar in style to the EarthWalk traditionals. 

Singing is part of the “core routines” practiced at EarthWalk and the songs often mark the beginning or end of rituals like eating and making fire.  I was particularly struck with the song “Thank you trees” that was written to remember the row of pines that was removed from the Hawthorne meadow to provide room for trees that supported more bird habitats to grow.  A lack of communication caused the EarthWalk Village School students to unknowingly stumble upon the fallen trees one day.  The song was written to help the students process their loss. 

While practicing with a bowdrill to make fire by hand, my small group and I wrote a fire song.  EarthWalk has a number of songs that are meant to support folks who are working on tasks and we enjoyed creating this one while waiting for Per and Luke’s tired muscles to produce a coal for our fire.

___

 

Anonymous. “The Robin and the Redbreast.” Wild Reckoning: An Anthology Provoked by Rachel Carson's Silent Spring. Ed.

     Burnside, John, Maurice Riordan. London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2004. 133. Print.

 

Berry, Wendell. Collected Poems, 1957-1982. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1985. Print.