Birds of the morning

Let the wild ones sing the day Let them sing above the earth, The dark earth.

Not the soft ones, With their murmurs and melancholy song, But the wild ones, the bright ones Singing primal music, The fearless ones, the open ones, Singing above the dusk and twilight; Singing in the wind, the hot light That strikes the memory clear.

Let them sing, the wild ones, Let them sing the day in And let the dark earth breathe again And let the wild ones sing To each other in the trees.

• Judith Wright