29. In a Moment of Naked Theological Candour – Daniel Abdal-Hayy Moore
Jul 24th, 2009
In a moment of naked theological candor
a flock of English Sparrows descends on my birdfeeder
like cool meteors and jockeys for positions at its
small round holes in the single suspended plastic cylinder
by batting wings and jabbing beaks until one
falls off one of the perches and another gets to the
seed for a few pecks until one faster or bigger or hungrier or feistier
knocks it off as well then they
all swoop away to the nearest treetops with a
loud fluttering of wings and the feeder
sways for a while back and forth perhaps
reeling happily from the impact
And I’ve concluded not that these birds these
great-to-the-nth-power grandchildren of membrane-winged lizards
are cold beady-eyed opportunists after all instead of
Shelleyan skylarks singing God’s praises and poets’ ambitions
but that they’re just that way with each other
the way cats like to bite to express themselves
Because many times I’ve also seen one bird bringing seed to another
full-grown bird that waits patiently at the window ledge to be fed
maybe its grown son or daughter maybe its
arthritic mother or shy brother God knows
but the seed purveyor would go back and
forth repeatedly and hop down and poke it down the
other bird’s throat with no
change of expression on its face a true servant
So that to say one thing or another based on purely
surface observation is actually
slippery ground both ontologically ornithologically and
even theologically since really
God is god to all things equally in their
own peculiar way even the
worm goes about being a worm the
only way it knows how
that is
until a robin finds it
MashaAllah. Your poem has really struck a chord with me as I have often observed the relationships of birds together, a mixture of aggression and sweetness. Your words for me subtly addresses the matter of not only how we judge situations but, also how we may judge each other culturally, racially or even generational.
May we all remember that Allah is the Judge.
Alhamdulillah… and jazakallah…thanks for the feedback (feeder-back?) These critters are outside my window where I work right now, chirping for me to refill the feeder… I always think that if the house is surrounded by birds the angels are there too… insha’Allah. And bird music is exquisite (do you know the music of French Catholic mystic-composer Olivier Messiaen? He wrote vast cosmic symphonies using actual bird notations and played by orchestral instruments… amazing.). In Nigeria there was a bird at night I never saw, that coo’d in a particularly sad down-scale, as if lamenting. Ask Hajj Abdalhaqq Bewley if he remembers it (and can imitate its sound. I’ll bet he can!) Its haunting song has stayed with me all these years (from the late 70s). (Your comment had me rereading my own poem!)