"... chipped off in brilliance"

Humming-Bird

D.H. Lawrence

I can imagine, in some otherworld
Primeval-dumb, far back
In that most awful stillness, that only gasped and hummed,
Humming-birds raced down the avenues.

Before anything had a soul,
While life was a heave of matter, half inanimate,
This little bit chipped off in brilliance
And went whizzing through the slow, vast, succulent stems.

I believe there were no flowers then,
In the world where the humming-bird flashed ahead of creation.
I believe he pierced the slow vegetable veins with his long beak.

Probably he was big
As mosses, and little lizards, they say, were once big.
Probably he was a jabbing, terrifying monster.

We look at him through the wrong end of the telescope of Time,
Luckily for us.



What more could I possibly write after that amazing poem? This thumbsized bird is a gift of dazzle and soul rocking brilliance.

For the Record,
This day came in cloudy and damp with the dreaded humidity I hate. Looks showery, with patches of sun to heat up the mugginess.

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