
a night heron,
up & about at sunrise,
like diehard revellers.

a night heron,
up & about at sunrise,
like diehard revellers.

home to birds & squirrels,
the tree holds life in every
crotch & hollow.

On this tree is a bird:
It dances in the joy of life.
No one knows where it is:
And who knows what the burden
Of its music may be?
Where the branches throw a deep shade,
There does it have its nest:
And it comes in the evening
And flies away in the morning,
And says not a word
Of that which it means.
None tell me of this bird
That sings within me.
It is neither coloured nor colourless:
It has neither form nor outline:
It sits in the shadow of love.
It dwells within the Unattainable,
The Infinite, and the Eternal;
And no one marks
When it comes and goes.
Kabir says, “O brother Sadhu!
Deep is the mystery.
Let wise men seek to know
where rests that bird.”
NOTE: This is the translation by Rabindranath Tagore from the 1915 text, One Hundred Poems of Kabir. This is poem #30 (XXX) of that volume.

a black crow,
oily & otherworldly,
alights on a rock.

one hundred birds
startle at my presence;
one eyeballs me.

lonely egret
wades in calm water,
awaiting lunch.