When Grey Shapes Slip the Shadows
When grey shapes slip the shadows of the morning
My small birds sit in silence in the eaves
But daylight brings indifferent behaviour
A mocking sang-froid
Ripples through the leaves
Or danger even drives to desperation
The flimsy flock
That sees off plundering crows
Though when the evening light renews the shadows
A fearful stillness
Spreads along their rows
. . . . . .
Their end is woven into their existence
Their deaths a fitness that their fate contrives
But here a helpless watcher from the window
Can scarce accept the lessons of their lives
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Ian A. Olson
Doctor, historian, ethnologist, folklorist, singer, editor and classic Scottish polymath, Ian Olson has distilled sixty years of writing and publishing both poetry and song, calling on Greek, Scottish and French history and languages.
