On Wednesday 24 March, the 12th day of the "Spring of Poets", we share one of the favourite poems of the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Rik Daems. A Flemish poem on the theme of freedom.

 

THE FLIGHT OF THE PIGEON

White as cotton wool, and toe-green

Green, is the variegated alder foliage.

 

Awake, like a wake-up call,

it wafts swiftly.

 

Green above is it and, without

minke, white as milk, underneath.

 

It follows unsteadily, all the way,

The unsteady wind dance.

 

Alternately, up and down,

it beats, like a bird feather.

 

White and gray, so, through the air,

The pigeon flight.

Guido Gezelle