Sparrow Envy - A Poem by J. Drew Lanham

Hey everyone, 

In my April 2023 Book Club, I wrote about the mesmerizing experience of reading J. Drew Lanham’s phenomenal memoir The Home Place: Memoir of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature. I’ve since fallen into a book of poetry he wrote. A lot of which is about birds! Check out the “title track” from his book Sparrow Envy. I love the poems about swan dreams and nighttime migrations, too … but see if these few words on 'sparrow envy' resonate with you today. 

Neil

 

Sparrow Envy from 'Sparrow Envy'

Written by J. Drew Lanham | Full book here

Were I the sparrow
brown-backed skittish and small—
I would find haven
in thorniest thickets—
search far and wide for fields lain fallow
treasure the unkempt
worship the unmown
covet the weed-strewn row

I would slink
between sedges 
chip unseen from brambles
skulk deep within hedges
and desire the ditches grown wild

I would find great joy
in the mist-sodden morning
sing humble pleas
from the highest weeds
and plead
for the gray days to stay