Bird poems from Poethead

Preamble to  The Valley by  Kerry Hardie

‘The first valley is the Valley of the Quest,
the second the Valley of Love
the third is the Valley of Understanding
the fourth is the Valley of Independence and Detachment
the fifth of Pure Unity
the sixth is the Valley of Astonishment
and the seventh is the Valley of Poverty and Nothingness
beyond which one can go no further. ‘

from , The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar, written in the second half of the twelfth century AD. This rendering in english is by C.S Nott.

I published a short poem of condolence this week for the victims of atrocity in Norway, and got to thinking about the bird poems that are linked on the blog. There are quite a few bird  poems,  as there are images scattered on the blog. I thought to link them here today.

The avatar that I chose for Poethead is  a bird,  Max Ernst’s image  is one of a set  of  lithographs used in his illustration of René Crevel‘s  Babylon . My avatar image is just below this short post on the bottom right-hand column of  the Poethead home page (and all of the pages on this blog) .

The Bird Poems from Poethead.

• from, An Duanaire: http://poethead.wordpress.com/2008/08/09/nach-aoibhinn-do-na-heinini/
• from , An Duanaire : http://poethead.wordpress.com/2010/06/05/failte-don-ean-an-duanaire/
• Kerry Hardie : http://poethead.wordpress.com/2011/01/08/a-saturday-woman-poet-kerry-hardie/
• ‘Aviary by Tom Mc Intyre’ :  http://poethead.wordpress.com/2010/10/07/aviary-by-tom-macintyre/
• ‘The Swallows Fly’ :  http://poethead.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/two-poems-by-mirjam-touminen/
• ‘The Philosopher and the Birds’ :http://poethead.wordpress.com/2010/07/15/the-philosopher-and-the-birds-by-richard-murphy-via-poethead/
• ‘Hide’  by Catríona O’ Reilly :  http://poethead.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/hide-by-catriona-o-reilly/
• ‘Willy-Wag and Sparrow’ : http://poethead.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/willy-wag-and-sparrow-by-nancy-cato/