Bird 5 - Käkä -The Crow Poem by Geeta Radhakrishna Menon
Bird 5 - Käkä -The Crow
Crow -the intuitive bird,
Corvus - the biological genus,
Corvidae - the family it hails from,
Carrying itself and flying in a straight line,
Curvaceous head that can tilt and slant,
Crowing instantly at the slightest din!
Dark as the night,
Deep black plumage,
Determined, but unsung hero among the birds,
Delicate nor attractive - feathers that cannot be boasted of
Dismal mannerisms that could prove irritable,
Discordant notes and tones that could be a cacophony!
Marvelous bird -the Käkä!
May not sing like the Cuckoo,
May not dance like the Peacock,
May not meditate like the Swan,
May only peck, gobble and perhaps,
Mischievous and mean too! Yet, the most sought after!
Why is crow sought after?
With reverence and awe!
Why do people clap?
With breathless anxiousness!
Why do relatives wait for it to
Wobble the food balls?
The erudite crow is
The Vehicle!
The Carrier of
The souls that have departed into
The unknown territories of
The body-less Spirits!
Yes! The common bird - Käkä
Carries in its tiny body
The souls that still miss their loved ones!
The crow flies around - round and round -
Until it catches a glimpse of the loved one!
The crows with spirits
Are guardian Angels
Protecting their living soulmates,
From unknown dangers,
Strange situations and evil eyes!
The spirits have no form or figure,
They cannot wave or gesture,
They make their presence felt
Only through the clever crow!
If a crow visits you at dawn,
Caws -caws - and caws at your window,
Please, do not shoo it off -
For it has come with a good tiding
Of a gracious visitor to your sweet home!
Indeed, the crow is an INTUITIVE BIRD. It observes human activities while remaining ironically detached. Unlike songbirds that disappear when their traditional haunts are gone, the crow adapts to urban settings. It's interesting that crows are seen as vehicles for departed souls to visit us.
The crow- a bird that is not regarded as beautiful, nor having sweet voice, but it is still an important creature of nature.We may learn so many things from their behaviour.A story about the thirsty crow we heard in my childhood days speaks of the cleverness of crow. Yours is a great poem on crow that has some elements of Hindu belief about this bird.I second the views of Rajnis Manga on this poem.
Crow is a bird familiar to all people with its ubiquitous presence! I too have written a few poems on crows! Definitely it is a clever bird. As you say it can be mischievous and mean. Still we all love this scavenger! A lovely poem, full with everything believed and attributed to a crow! A big10
geeta, it's easy for me to see why you've chosen the crow as a subject. i too have been fascinated by them and made several attempts at writing about them. presently i have just one poem posted in ph with the title, naturally enough, crows. here they are more common in the colder weather- coming in autumn as it gets colder- and leaving in spring as it gets warmer. glen p.s. kaka is an onomatopoetic word for the crow. i tend to hear the sound as caw caw. like other corvids, we generally don't think of their sounds or calls as musical, do we? -g
Hi Glen, Though poets do not consider crow as a subject to write poems, yet, i feel crows with their irritating caw caws, and most non-musical sound, is still of great significance in India. Thank you for reading the crow poem. Stay blessed Glen.
Dark as the night, Deep black plumage, Determined, but unsung hero among the birds.... // I have read quite a number of poems about crow since my childhood but I have no doubt in saying that this is a real masterpiece. No body could have written such an ode to an ordinary crow without love of nature all around as well as adequate knowledge of culture within which we exist and to which we can relate. We also get a message that all creatures deserve to be treated kindly. Thank you so much, Geeta ji.
Dear Rajnish ji, I cannot express how happy i am that you read my poem on Kaka or theCrow. Thank you again and again for your beautiful comment. I truly value them like precious gems. Thank you too, for voting for this poem. The humble crow was without a vote for two years.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/7/2024 9:26:46 AM # 1.0.0.1119
Marvellous depiction. Well presentation with excellent collocation. Thanks for sharing such intensive poem about a bird like crow......10
Many, many thanks to you Kumarmani. Happy that you read the poem.
Thank you very much.