Unseen she sings upon the bough
The notes she gathers far and wide
The while her music fills the wood
Her plumage she’s content to hide
Her throat
Each note
In secret keeps inside
She imitates the sparrow’s call
And shapes the jay’s scream into song
Both lark and nightingale her book
Well conned o’er and remembered long
Their tune
‘Neath moon
She shall deliver soon
An alchemist of music she
Transmuting every sound she’s heard
Into her own true melody–
The paean of the mockingbird
Her days
In praise
She spends to our amaze
Process Notes
Matildis la Libraire was surprised with an offer of entry to the Order of the Laurel at Middle Kingdom Academy of Defense in September, 2022, and elevated at evening court that same day. I had a small part in the affectionate conspiracy to prepare for her vigil, and somehow that kept me so busy, I didn’t get her poem written until after morning court.
In her “In case of peerage” file, Matildis had expressed a wish that at her vigil, there should be art materials and paper sized to be bound later into a book. She wanted everyone who visited to create a piece of visual art, however unfamiliar an activity that might be for them. Her husband carried out this wish. And so I have hand-lettered and illuminated her poem, my sole such effort to date.
The verse form is closely modeled on John Donne’s “Goe and catch a falling star” from his Songs and Sonnets. The first stanza encapsulates the central image I had of Matildis as an illuminator of award scrolls, catching the words and deeds of others and transforming them into her own art, which appeared publicly while she remained out of sight. I like to think my verse has a little of the poignant quality of Donne’s original, though not its cynicism.
Ursula Mortimer 