What Do Birds Mean? - Issue #8
Free As a Bird
Birds figure heavily in my next novel, 27. A bird awakens one of my characters to life and a desire to live it. A different bird serves as a metaphor for another character's captivity.
I have always been drawn to poems about birds. Here are a few stanzas from a Maya Angelou poem:
A free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wing
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky...
The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
Sounds lovely, doesn't it?
A Bird in Prison
She contrasts the free bird with the caged bird, and those are the stanzas that pierce the heart, and we instinctively know the truth of them.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing..
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
Not Quite...Right
The stanzas about the free bird are so picturesque, almost like a fairytale. "Free as a bird..." "If I could fly like birds on high, then straight to her arms I'd go sailing..." "Fly me to the moon, let me sing among the stars..." References to birds and flying are prolific in prose and song. They're descriptors of the idealized life, and they all sound a little too good and not quite real.
Birds mean something. Angelou's stanzas on the caged bird are masterful and cut to the quick. But the poem in total is missing something. It's beautiful, but it's not quite true.
Birds Tell Us How to Live
Here's a question to ponder: What is Angelou's poem missing? What thing about a free bird's existence has she failed to consider? I'm going to be writing an answer to that question in a blog post. You, my kind subscribers, will get the first look at it!
In the meanwhile, I'd love to hear your ideas. Send me an email and let me know what you think.
Until next week...
