Somewhere around 2006 or so, I let myself actually believe that I was a poet. Before then I didn’t even think of myself as a writer, let alone a poet. I was also spending time—and eventually living for two years—in South Africa.

Although I can’t say for sure, I believe that my time writing in South Africa brought me into my wondering about creatures. It’s hard to say when the things that feel so utterly central to who you are started showing up. My interest in noticing has been with me since childhood, as has my appreciation of small objects, but I don’t remember connecting deeply in a spiritual, not-knowing way with creatures until I started writing from rocks next to the Indian Ocean, taking walks in Kirstenbosch Gardens, sitting on or staring at Table Mountain, and meeting the bird whose song and stories inspired my admiration and attention for over two years of creating this poem.

I love everything about hadedas, not least of which because hadedas invited me into wondering (and researching!) so many other creatures who are now part of my being. Bees, Southern Right Whales, dussies, spiders, baboons, ants, and mollusks (who much later brought me to my curiosities about octopuses).

Why we love who we love or why we follow the wonderings we have is in the realm of beautiful not-knowing. I wrote this poem because I needed it. I still need it. It reminds me who I am and what matters.

from removing (poetry collection by Melissa Butler, published by Modjaji Books, 2010), pages 38-47.

slow down, notice more