A poem for the New Year

Two years ago I spent a white Christmas in Ireland, and around midday on a crisp, sun-filled New Year’s Day I went for a long walk to essentially say 'goodbye' to the area in Corca Dhuibhne where we’d been staying. When I came back to the house I found a beautiful robin redbreast inside the living room, sitting on the sofa as comfortably as any guest might, because a trinity of windows had been left wide open to air the place after a week of ice, sleet and floods.

The following memory-poem is about how I had tried my best to move the robin out of the house for his own safety. There was a moment there when he stopped struggling in my hands and understood that I was trying to help him. I am grateful for him for that. He was beautiful and it was an absolute honour to meet him. The poem 'takes off' just before he is let loose into the world again...


Robin

Small apparition,
a perfect shape of fire.

Once I held your warmth
in both hands.

I murmured safe passage,
ripe crimson words

then swift grace followed.
Wonder soared inside the New Year.


                      -- Libby Hart