The First Time

Blackbird, you must believe me,
but I didn’t set out to praise you.
So much can seem pastoral,
hackneyed, and plain ‘done already’.

But your song today
when I opened the window,
once the lashing rain had passed
and a feeble sun had come out –

it was so vital and clear.
You were not troubled by worry,
not hamstrung with minutiae,
nor at all concerned about

what you should be doing.
You simply sang from your heart,
a heart which I can’t always find
or even acknowledge in me.

Today then, at least let me say
it was like hearing you
for the first time.
Which of course, I was

Poem © copyright df barker