What the Bird (and C.S Lewis) Said

When lovely Joy was a-visiting a couple of weeks ago, we took a Sunday afternoon tromp round Addison's Walk. This is the lovely loop of forested path in Magdalene College where Lewis and Tolkien had a talk about myth that turned Lewis toward believing that the epic of Christ just might be true. At the first turn of the path, on the other side of a small bridge, there is an unassuming plaque paying tribute to Lewis's presence at Magdalene through the words of a poem he wrote in the springtime one year. I have rarely encountered a poem so taut and trembling all at once with the hope that thrums in the coming of spring. I read this aloud to my poetry group a couple of weeks ago, and we looked out the window and felt like we heard the trill of a bird in the light, sweet repetition - listen, you can hear it in the lines 'this year, this year'. And with that haunting call, the quickened heartbeat, 'quick quick!' of hope.

I simply had to share:

What the Bird Said Early in the Year C.S. Lewis

I heard in Addison’s Walk a bird sing clear: This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.

Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees This year nor want of rain destroy the peas.

This year time’s nature will no more defeat you. Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.

This time they will not lead you round and back To Autumn, one year older, by the well worn track.

Often deceived, yet open once again your heart, Quick, quick, quick, quick! – the gates are drawn apart.

Open once again your heart.