"Another Planet"; "A Minor Bird"

For this week’s Peace of History:

We continue our celebration of National Poetry Month with two more poems. Yesterday was the 50th annual Earth Day -- the most unique in the half-century history of the holiday due to covid-19. So in acknowledgment of the holiday, as well as the extraordinary circumstances in which we celebrated our home planet, our poems this week offer differing perspectives on our relationship with Earth. In the first poem, by Dunya Mikhail, the narrator describes a utopian planet in contrast to Earth: the other planet is safe, comfortable, beautiful, peaceful. But what is the value of such a life if there is no one else with whom to share it?

On the other hand, the narrator of the second poem, by Robert Frost, is content with Earth except that he must share it with others. The poem is also reminiscent of the covid-19 quarantine “loud birds” phenomenon, in which people around the world have noticed the high volume of bird sounds as the sounds of human activity have diminished. The responses to the dramatic increase in “natural” sounds in our built environments have been varied, but Frost reminds us that if we are offended by the songs of Earth, perhaps it is we who adjust ourselves.


“Another Planet”

I have a special ticket
to another planet
beyond this Earth.
A comfortable world, and beautiful:
a world without much smoke,
not too hot
and not too cold.
The creatures
are gentler there,
and the governments
have no secrets.
The police are nonexistent:
there are no problems
and no fights.
And the schools
don’t exhaust their students
with too much work
for history has yet to start
and there’s no geography
and no other languages.
And even better:
the war
has left its “r” behind
and turned into love,
so the weapons sleep
beneath the dust,
and the planes pass by
without shelling the cities,
and the boats
look like smiles
on the water.
All things
are peaceful
and kind
on the other planet
beyond this Earth.
But still I hesitate
to go alone.


Dunya Mikhail. "Another Planet," The Iraqi Nights (2013).

--

“A Minor Bird”

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.


Robert Frost. “A Minor Bird,” West-Running Brook (1928).