This audio is of me reading this new poem: Look up!
Look up!
Look up!
I call out to my sister
As I point with two hands up into the sky
1,2,3,4
20, maybe even 100 more.
I walk a little further
And take a seat to watch
The parade of fluttering wings
A load of tiny dots
There are little birds everywhere across the sky tonight.
I can’t stop watching them
I pull out my phone by instinct
To try to film the magic
But this tiny lens is not up to the job.
My focus on these birds is making my mind quiet
But alert to the buzz of the bee behind me
The gentle trickle of the local stream
And the tiny spider pulling itself up onto a tree - right in front of my nose.
I think I’ll just stay here a little longer
In the company of these birds
And watch the light in the sky blend from blue
To nothing.
These poems are a pretty new thing for me. However, I seem to be drawn to this quicker expression at the moment, as a way to record the beauty of life and the often unexpected ways that it captures my attention.
The films that follow are what I captured on my phone, as mentioned in the poem. It didn’t seem like much movement was captured when looking at it on a tiny screen. However, when watched on a computer, rather than a phone - it is possible to see some of the many flying birds. It’s quite mindful to watch the film looking for them also. I couldn’t determine exactly the bird type, they were pretty small and when moving quickly their wings were flapping very wildly. My best guess is Swifts.
Films: My view of the little birds in the sky version 1, 2 and 3© Hazel Saunderson 2025