Welcome back to the Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.

I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Wednesday, July 31st, 2024.

Today's poem is by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and it's called as King Fischer's Catch Fire.

Admittedly, this poem will open with a description of Kingfishers, but eventually depart from there.

I think, though, it's enough to count as an animal poem.

And if not, hopefully this is such a great poem that it makes up for that little transgression.

Here is, as Kingfishers catch fire.

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame,

as tumbled over rim and roundy wells, stones ring,

like each tucked string tells, each hung bells, bow, swung,

finds tongue to fling out broad its name. Each mortal thing does one thing and the same,

deals out that being indoors, each one dwells, selves, goes itself, myself, it speaks,

and spells, crying,

What I do is me, for that I came.

I say more.

The just man, justices, keeps grace.

That keeps all his going's graces, acts in God's eye,

what in God's eye he is, Christ. For Christ plays in 10,000 places,

lovely in limbs and lovely in eyes, not his, to the father through the features of men's faces.

There's a lot going on here in this little sonnet.

We'll try and scratch the surface, but I encourage you to return to it frequently,

or to quote Humphrey Bogart soon and for the rest of your life.

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