The Song of the Birds of Rhiannon

The Song of the Birds of Rhiannon
(Poem by Giles Watson. Pictures: Statue of Epona from Trier; Blackcap, Skylark and Linnet from A History of British Birds, F. O. Morris, 1862; Illustration of Rhiannon from Lady Charlotte Guest's translation of the Mabinogion, 1845; Copper Engraving of Narberth Castle, Pembroke, c. 1780.)

We form one flock, intermingle,
coalesce into three songbirds:
blackcap, skylark, linnet,
whirling through her slipstream
as she rides into evening.

Blackcap: warbler of rose briars
and brambles, scurrilous mimic,
caterpillar-catcher, fly-chaser, broker
of morning.

Skylark: long-nailed
hoverer, searcher of the charlock,
chickweed and thistle, catcher
of earthworms and beetles,
causer of summer.

Linnet: lilter
of medleys, chitterer, twitterer,
eater of weed-seeds, flight-dancer,
bringer of finches – all passerines
expressed through three of us.

We are shreds of the hair and mane
flowing from Rhiannon. Our songs
are the words of Rhiannon, our claws
the same stuff as her fingernails,
our feathers forged, by alchemy,
of her brocades. We are the flight
and flow and delight of Rhiannon,
the waking and breathing of Rhiannon,
the lustre and leisure, the slow warm
womanly allure of Rhiannon.
The breath of Rhiannon sustains us:
fills our little lungs, lifts seeds
towards us, gives us updrafts, thermals,
eddies, mistrals. Our forms are from
the thoughts of Rhiannon.

We spire and look down on Narberth:
pretension of humans, castle of swagger,
place of hog-roasts and sword-fights,
bastion of battlements and stone latrines,
reeking of manliness, built by muscle,
home to lordly seekers of marvels,
pageant of pennants, array of armour,
jugglers and bards in bawdy humour,
raisings of drinking-horns, banter
and bluster, clatters of weapons,
beer-drinkers, boasters, brigands
and warlords, wranglers, wastrels,
witless drunkards, brash men and braggarts,
swaggerers, swiggers, mercenaries,
muggers, men who when wounded
moan for their mothers.

We descend,
feast on our ample sufficiency of seeds
and snails, sip from dewdrops, preen
in sunlight, flit through dust-motes,
join with our mistress. Our singing
is in her ringlets. We are blackcap,
skylark, linnet. We are horse and
horsewoman, ridden and rider,
walker, galloper, canterer, flyer.
We have risen, interwoven.

We are woman.
We are Rhiannon.