Swift Return

Andrew Stone

Wheeling ceased,
land marked,
summer-leased eaves
made itinerant home –
should sanctuary hold
through winter’s breath
while continents are flown.

Stretchered feathers
on fletchered bone.

Mercurial messenger
folk-taled rainmaker,
spooling ‘cross pasture.
Whisking air like butter.

Falling scythes once cleared crops,
midst screams of sickle-wings
that pulsed and dropped,
from skies that danced with seasonal flare.

Quieter now,
a fragile pair
peeps.

A last ascent in half-brained sleep
sparks return to remembered keep.
Skimming aerials and rising lofts,
seeking familial feather-spun motte.

Our conservation of species –
a fortified self.
Intolerant host
rings tocsin bell.

Cracks sealed.
Cavities blocked.
Unfamiliar feared, left to clot.
No light here –
impregnable.

So into ponds
their spirits burrow.
Restless,
weighted dice, cast in fallow.

The Science

This poem is inspired by recent research published by RSPB showing that Common Swifts return to the same nesting site each year. These birds live ten months of each year on the wing, sleeping at great heights and only resting on land temporarily on our shores in summer - to eat and procreate - before returning to Africa, flying thousands of miles in just a few days.

Swift numbers have more than halved since 1975 according to BTO, a major cause is the reduction in nesting sites. As we insulate our homes and expand lofts, the crevices and eaves that house their nests are often destroyed. Confused swifts can be seen attempting to fit into old, familiar spaces, becoming injured and often abandoning mating altogether. Folklore surrounds their temporary appearance on our shores. Their changing flight patterns were thought to indicate rain and their sudden migration in Autumn encouraged the belief that they burrowed deep into ponds for the winter months. Conservation initiatives like the ‘swift brick’ could provide more nesting sites in our buildings, and biodiversity regulations could improve habitats, but the ecological cultural memory held within their multi-generational homes is harder to fabricate.

The Poet

Andrew Stone is an artist/researcher and co-founder of Studio Blue Green, often collaborating on art-science installations with living systems, reflecting on what it means to be human in a living multispecies world. I'm interested in the nature of our built environments in relation with the living world, as we become more urbanised, and how that affects our connection with the natural world and threatens species biodiversity in the long term. How do we value the concept of 'home' across all life on Earth?

Next poem: The Asian Koel by Manju Bal Krishna