This is the most important moment of our entire lives for using our voices, speaking our truths, speaking the truth that our heart and community and earth tell us must be spoken. It’s wonderful that Taylor Swift uses her voice, but really, what will make the decisive difference in this time is each of us speaking, however we speak, to anyone and everyone we can reach–a check-out person at the store, our email list–offering our own words, our own story. Each late summer and early fall my least favorite birdsong takes over the airwaves in my neighborhood. It tells me what I don’t want to hear–that I need to get that woodshed filled, that garden harvested and put to bed, the homestead ready to be under snow. This sonnet is a first draft poem of the week, and the video a first take, celebrating the role of the blue jay in my life, speaking truths I may dread but moving me to action I need to take. This poem also gives encouragement and thanks to you for using your voice. I am so grateful–sing boldly, please! Here is the poem’s text, in classic Shakespearean sonnet form:

The blue jays have a song and time to sing
when they convey the urgency of fall,
when sweeter songbirds shift from nest to wing,
brains changing as they hear their journey call,
so even if you squawk or screech or caw,
the time will come for you to use that voice.
Trust in the Spirit’s way, in nature’s law,
in natural selection’s prudent choice—
you may not know the reason why you write
or paint or sing, why make neglected art,
but jays remain when other birds take flight,
and as leaves turn, their song can turn a heart
to face the tasks put off too long by dread
and speak harsh truths earth tells us must be said.

9/7/24