Why a Pear Tree?

Why would I be
in a pear tree?
On the first day
of Christmas, too.
I am a farm bird,
a runner in fields,
and wouldn’t
appeal to you.
I’m not as bright
as a pheasant,
and not quite
as cute as a quail;
my body is grey,
but my face is pleasant,
blushing reddish,
the same as my tail.

Kim M. Russell, 12th December 2023

Image by Bruce Kee on Unsplash

It’s the final Poetics of the year at the dVerse Poets Pub and Melissa is our host with a point of view prompt. She starts by asking us what animals come to mind when we think of December weather and the winter holiday. She gives us examples of a few together with poems about them: ‘Magellanic Penguin’ by Pablo Neruda, ‘The Partridge’ by David Galler, ‘The Duck and the Kangaroo’ by Edward Lear, ‘This Heart That Flutters Near My Heart’ a poem about the wren by James Joyce, and ‘Baby Wrens’ Voices’ by Thomas R. Smith.

Our challenge is to either select one of the given traditional Christmas animals and write a poem from its point of view, imagining what it’s like where it lives this time of year, how Christmas factors in its life, or how it factors into Christmas; or write a poem from the third person point of view, describing how a poem might talk with or interact with the creature, whether the poem is sceptical about the creature is associated with Christmas or is concerned for its welfare in the current climate crisis, or attempts to convince it to revolt against those who wrongly incorporated it into the Christmas season.

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