Kenneth Steven watches the annual rite of grey geese returning from Iceland to their winter quarters, and reflects on the compass in their souls. His poem comes from the lively anthology, Wonder: The Natural History Museum Book, contents chosen by Ana Sampson (Macmillan, 2021, £14.99).
LESLEY DUNCAN
GREY GEESE
All night they flew over in skeins.
I heard their wrangling far away
Went out once to look for them, long after midnight.
Saw them silvered by the moonlight, like waves,
Flagging south, jagged and tired,
Across the sleeping farms and the autumn rivers
To the late fields of autumn.
Even in a city I have heard them
Their noise like the rusty wheel of a bicycle;
I have looked up from among the drum of engines
To find them in the sky
A broken arrowhead turning south
Heading for home.
The Iceland summer, the long light
Has run like rivers through their wings,
Strengthened the sinews of their flight
Over the whole ocean, till at last they circle,
Straggle down on the chosen runway of their field.
They come back
To the same place, the same day, without fail;
Precision instruments, a compass
Somewhere deep in their souls.
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