"Sparrow, What Did You Say?"

3 January 2020: I've been getting a fair amount accomplished these past few days, though there is still plenty of time for thinking Big Thoughts and all that. And some of that thinking (most of it?) is connected to thoughts about work, productivity, getting things done. I'm acutely aware that my life taking the shape it has has meant space for certain things that ordinarily might have been filled by other things. Anyway, this poem by Ada Limón, which I heard on the Poetry Off the Shelf podcast this morning, speaks to some of those ideas. I find it quite moving, particularly the way it pays attention to silence, freedom, and images, yet also remains a bit ambivalent about the larger questions at work.

“Sparrow, What Did You Say?”
Ada Limón

A whole day without speaking,
rain, then sun, then rain again,
a few plants in the ground, newbie
leaves tucked in black soil, and I think
I’m good at this, this being alone
in the world, the watching of things
growing, this older me, the she in
comfortable shoes and no time
for dishes, the she who spent
an hour trying to figure out a bird
with a three-note descending call
is just a sparrow. What would I even
do with a kid here? Teach her
to plant, watch her like I do
the lettuce leaves, tenderly, place
her palms in the earth, part her
dark hair like planting a seed? Or
would I selfishly demand this day
back, a full untethered day trying
to figure out what bird was calling
to me and why.