Photo by Matt Binns- Tui on flax or harakeke. |
A tui sits on highest tree
Singing out so desperately,
"Oh won't you make a nest with me?
I'll share with you my love."
He's sung his song
For oh so long
He wonders now what he's done wrong,
But still sings from high above.
Where are the young and clucky girls?
There should be one out in this world.
Are they busy chasing pretty jewels,
Instead of one true love?
There used to be a time that we
Together would raise a family,
And give our young security.
But now that's not enough.
How can we raise our kids today,
Without two parents home to stay?
A man who's strong when youngsters stray,
And mentor them from wrong.
With a woman's sensitivity
To nurture their ability
And sense of responsibility
To keep our families strong.
A tui sings from highest tree,
Calling out so desperately,
While our own society.....
Falls apart.
8 comments:
how poignant, I love this! That is a beautiful photo too! Your talent is amazing Jim....
This is such a powerful piece of writing, Jim. Am sharing!
There I was, enjoying your poem with a smile on my face - and then I got to the end. Great poem. I'd like to think some of us out there are doing our bit to keep society in one piece. :)
Beautifully conceptualized.
Well, it takes a man and a woman to keep the family together, ladies.
The genesis of this was a bird that has staked his territory around our block and has been calling for a mate for the last 3 weeks. Sadly, he's out of luck as the area seems to be short of females.
So he's still flitting from tree to tree singing his heart out.
While my wife and I were discussing the bird, we were also chatting about the sad state of affairs at her day care centre where so many of the young kids are from single parent families, after partnership break ups.
On top of this, a lot ofour generation's kids are not entering into marriage, as we did. Some are settling upon raising children on their own, with one gender missing.
So the poetry was written to encourage discussion along the lines of what changes are occurring in our modern society.
This is beautiful and somewhat haunting. I believe in our times (perhaps more than ever?) we are witnessing the breakdown of the family. It all starts in the home, good or bad, Mother Teresa had an excellent quote on this, I should try to find it and post it. :)
Right. These days, many men are more than glad to just be sperm donors, and some women do not expect their men to be more than that.
Gorgeous bird, btw.
Wouw ····· So that is the story behind this beautiful poem, Jim. People like the black bird in your poem, searching hard for their pair, yet when they finally got together, they must ended everything in the end. A broken family, maybe because they were not soul mate since the beginning.
As usual, I love yr poems, but this one a bit hard to read in my mobile, because of the color of the letters. :-)
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