This April is the 24th National Poetry Month, a celebration established and organized by the Academy of American Poets.  Throughout the month, there are a number of specific events including Poem in Your Pocket Day, April 18, and the Dear Poet project.  Every school day this month, the King Street Chronicle will publish one poem in honor of National Poetry Month.  

Red Bird Explains Himself
Mary Oliver
“Yes, I was the brilliance floating over the snow
and I was the song in the summer leaves, but this was
only the first trick
I had hold of among my other mythologies,
for I also knew obedience: bringing sticks to the nest,
food to the young, kisses to my bride.
But don’t stop there, stay with me: listen.
If I was the song that entered your heart
then I was the music of your heart, that you wanted and needed,
and thus wilderness bloomed there, with all its
followers: gardeners, lovers, people who weep
for the death of rivers.
And this was my true task, to be the
music of the body.  Do you understand? for truly the body needs
a song, a spirit, a soul.  And no less, to make this work,
the soul has need of a body,
and I am both of the earth and I am of the inexplicable
beauty of heaven
where I fly so easily, so welcome, yes,
and this is why I have been sent, to teach this to your heart.”
Contributed by Upper School Theology and History Teacher Mr. Dan Favata
– Sydney Kim, Opinions Editor
Featured Image by Sydney Kim ’20