P Worms
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1DbramL4ax/We live in a 10% world.
90% of all the birds, fishes and animals that populated this world are gone. They've been replaced by us, by our fields, our plantations, our livestock.
Signs of this are everywhere. And now, in February, one of the signs hides right in Chaucer's "Parliament of Fowls", written around 1380:
"For this was on Saint Valentines day,
Whan every bird cometh to choosehis mate,
Of every kinde that men thinke may;
And that so huge a noise gan they make,
That erthe and air and tree and every lake
So full was that hardly was there space
For me to stand, so full was all the place."
Read that again: "So huge a noise".
"So full was that hardly was there space For me to stand, so full was all the place."
What a world Chaucer must have known! What a world bursting with sound and life! There were a few birds out in the garden, last week. But they are few. The noise? Absent. Some chirping, interrupted by silence. And I can stand anywhere I like.
It is February. The days are drawing longer. Nature awakens after her wintry slumber. And I am glad. But I cannot help but mourn all that has been lost.