Supposedly Mute Swans Sing Only When They Court
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
In nature hymnal words are absent, no
Necessity for them in wildebeests.
No piety is needed. Creatures know
Their niches. Feathered beings need no priests
Or Vedas. Nature’s piety sings clear
To furry animals. They raise their young,
Are killed or die. They register their fear
And watch for threats. The whales and birds have sung
Their melodies for eons far beyond
Our meagre minds, for fifty million years,
The birds for more. These do not know some bond
Between them, know no music of the spheres.
They just get on with life and death. They do
Not need faith’s doctrines, false or true.
~ Phillip Whidden
