small, shy green bird

For English last year I had to pick and write a response to my favorite poem. I thought I'd share.

After the goddess

sang, in silence she became

a small, shy green bird

- Onitsura

I first found this poem in a beat-up old book of Japanese Haikus from the school library when I was doing my poetry project in tenth grade, and I immediately fell in love with it. Ever since, it has stuck in my mind, and it has been growing on me throughout the years. I love green. When I picture this poem, I see green everywhere, leaves of frosty green in a foggy Asian garden, wet with dew. And hidden in the branches, partly behind the leaves and partly camouflaged because of her color, is a timid, quietly beautiful little bird. But oh, what glory is in her song! Its beauty is so great that it immobilizes, transports, fills with awe. It is a song divine; the outpouring of the soul of a goddess – a goddess that is a small, shy green bird. The secret identity of the bird, and her transformation into a goddess, intrigues me. I have had a fascination with transformations ever since I was a little girl. Nobody looking at the bird would know she is a goddess, but that doesn’t change the fact that she is. This poem speaks to me because I can relate to the bird, and because I want to be the goddess. I am small in stature and in confidence, and I have always been shy. However, somehow I feel like I am a goddess, only I am afraid to sing. I long for that song though; that moment in which I can share my beauty, so captivating that I will even forget myself, so that the inner goddess that I know lives inside of me can be appreciated. I know I do have beauty to share, but nobody else knows it; they only see a little green bird. As much as I love pondering the possibilities of the lowly that is truly great, it struck me that the focus of this poem is not the bird becoming a goddess, or even her song. It is afterward; the captured moment is the transformation is from a goddess to a bird. It emphasizes that she is humble and that she does not want the glory for herself; the glory is in the song, and the beauty of the song. The true beauty of the bird is that she is only a bird, a common creature who can produce glorious things. And the other part of this beauty is her humility; she is content with being a bird, and content to be seen as such. She, unlike me, is not prideful or vain. She makes me want to be humble too. This humility is what is really striking about this poem. Would I have looked twice at it had in the last line the goddess struck some haughty posture or paused to bask in her own beauty? No, the allure is in that magical moment in the silence when the reverie ends and the truth is seen – her divinity is hidden, she becomes a bird, yet she is still truly a goddess, though no one notices. It inspires me; reminding me that even though not everyone may know or see it, I am a goddess, I am beautiful inside, and I do have something glorious to share with the world.