Tui, with your white throat,
you dance on the flimsy limb,
and sing a song,
that keeps me listening.
As the wind tosses the leaves
against a leaden winter sky,
I wonder you have a tune still
that causes your breast to rise
.
I fear the cold that I can feel
in the blustery wind,
has got into my bones,
never mind that I sit warm inside.
Yes today, I am aware
there are two ways of being…
And I wonder Tui, with your tune,
how you could have known,
that for a moment there
I’d forgotten
the notes that give us a song.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
Winter Solstice 2017