Weeks ago, a poet friend sent me a poem by Ukrainian writer Victoria Amelia, who died July 1st from injuries sustained in a Russian missile strike. Her poem was inspired by her work interviewing women who lived through the Russian occupation. The poem stuck with me and I’ve taken a few crow pictures to illustrate.
Poem About a Crow
In a barren springtime field
Stands a woman dressed in black
Crying her sisters’ names
Like a bird in the empty sky
She’ll cry them all out of herself
The one that flew away too soon
The one that had begged to die
The one that couldn’t stop death
The one that has not stopped waiting
The one that has not stopped believing
The one that still grieves in silence
She’ll cry them all into the ground
As though sowing the field with pain
And from pain and the names of women
Her new sisters will grow from the earth
And again will sing joyfully of life
But what about her, the crow?
She will stay in this field forever
Because only this cry of hers
Holds all those swallows in the air
Do you hear how she calls
Each one by her name?
Very moving
ReplyDeleteI thought so too. Thank you.
ReplyDelete