Poems in Darkness

Bede's Bird

"The present life of man, O king, seems to me, like to the swift flight of a sparrow through the room wherein you sit at supper in winter, with your commanders and ministers, and a good fire in the midst, whilst the storms of rain and snow prevail abroad; the sparrow, I say, flying in at one door, and immediately out at another, whilst he is within, is safe from the wintry storm; but after a short space of fair weather, he immediately vanishes out of your sight, into the dark winter from which he had emerged. So this life of man appears for a short space, but of what went before, or what is to follow, we are utterly ignorant. If, therefore, this new doctrine contains something more certain, it seems justly to deserve to be followed." Bede: Ecclesiastical History of the English People

We are all Bede’s bird -

Although this may seem quite absurd.

A sparrow shears through a golden hall,

Too fast to brake; too fast to stall -

And vanishes, we know not where,

Into the dark and frigid air -

Others ask, ‘Where does the sparrow fly?’

Some say to live; some say to die.

Cynics say there’s no bird at all,

Nor priest, nor feast, nor banquet hall,

But all is just a pleasant dream,

Of things hoped for, and yet unseen,

Yet in my travels I have heard,

Brave men have died to spread The Word

That we are all Bede’s bird.