Bird in Space

 

Are you a bird indeed or just a feather?
Are you a pars pro toto for the sage?
Are you the victim of inclement weather?
The only wonder given to our age?

Maybe you’re just the metaphor of writing,
The only art that tames all depths and heights
Of human heart; the quill, with every sighting
Of the soul’s phases, channels Wisdom’s lights.

A feather that belonged to St.John’s eagle
Would be enough to point to the divine.
The feather from the wing of a bronze seagull
Would mourn two wax wings swallowed by the brine.

Or were you, bird which earthly things so spurned,
Sucked up thus by the sky for which you yearned?

 

Bird in Space in the New National Gallery in Berlin, Germany (Wikipedia).