The Duck

The Duck

By Jane Goodall

A duck that flew across the sun

Flew on past me,

Winging his solitary way

Towards the sea.

I saw the brightness of his eye

So close he flew;

His feathers in the sunset gleamed

With lustrous hue.

I heard the music of his wings,

The song of flight

Stirring the stillness of a world

Awaiting night.

I sensed the warm life in his breast

So close to me 

And in my heart the pain of joy

That such could be.

The lovely dunes; the setting sun;

The duck--and I;

One spirit, moving timelessly

Beneath the sky.

This is a poem written by one of the people I admire the most: Jane Goodall. She evidently combines in the poem her love for the natural world, and her reflective interest in spiritual topics. I like this poem because it effectively reflects her then growing awareness of the incontrovertible unity of the diversity of life on the planet (as this was written at a time when her beliefs had been frequently evolving). She tries to capture here the feeling of being one with the rest of life, and reflects on whether our species has the right to dominate the rest of nature only because of our capacity to do so. I believe in the message that there is value in all life.