Poetry Friday — Butterflies

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The monarchs are here, on their way to Mexico for the winter.

My friend Bernadette, who tends to keep her eye on the sky, sent an email yesterday reminding us of this bi-annual event.

I find butterfly migration rather staggering. I mean, if I were that fragile I’d be hunkered down in my hometown rather than risking life and limb… er, wing… by traveling thousands of miles through cities and over freeways and past bats and birds of prey.

It is a lovely and inspiring thing to see courage and intuition move through town in deep orange blooms of butterflies. In honor of them, this poem…

Caterpillar
— Christina Rossetti

Brown and furry
Caterpillar in a hurry,
Take your walk
To the shady leaf, or stalk,
Or what not,
Which may be the chosen spot.
No toad spy you,
Hovering bird of prey pass by you;
Spin and die,
To live again a butterfly.

16 Responses to “Poetry Friday — Butterflies”

  1. Anonymous

    TadMack says: 🙂

    I love Christina Rosseti’s poetry, and her love of nature. It still amazes me that so many people here in the UK know her brother as the poet; while elsewhere we only know him as the sculptor who adored his sister.

  2. cloudscome

    We have that poem in a board book that I absolutely adore. It’s one of my favorite of Rossetti’s. Yesterday I saw one lonely, confused monarch hovering around our butterfly bush. The rest have long gone on their southern journey. It made me sad, but was so beautiful. I tried to get a photo but she wouldn’t stay still.

  3. Anonymous

    Spin and die,
    To live again a butterfly

    This will stay in my mind for a while. Thanks for sharing.

  4. jamarattigan

    Lovely. I hear you on how miraculous it is for these butterflies to migrate. We don’t see them too often here (at least not in our woods).

  5. mlyearofreading

    “to see courage and intuition move through town”

    Wow.

    Not only do I wish I could see THAT, but I wish I had the power with words to name my world the way you do! Your writing inspires me to see differently.

  6. saralholmes

    A caterpillar blessing. How lovely.

    And how lovely that you bless them again as they courageously move through your town. I like the way your eyes see things. 🙂