Birds of North Europe

"Birds of North Europe" is a poem by Tabish Khair, the internationally acclaimed Indian English author and journalist. The poem won First Prize in the Sixth All India Poetry Competition conducted by The Poetry Society (India) in 1995. The poem brought the first major literary award for Tabish Khair, who is better known as a novelist of repute.

Excerpts from the poem

 * Twenty-four years in different European cities and he had not lost
 * His surprise at how birds stopped at the threshold
 * Of their houses. Never


 * Flying into rooms, to be decapitated by fan-blades or carefully
 * Herded through open windows to another life, never
 * Building on this lampshade




 * Did not intrude into private spheres. demanding to be overlooked
 * Or worshipped. They did not consider houses simply
 * Exotic trees or hollowed


 * Hills. Not being particularly learned, he did not know the thread
 * Of fear that knots the wild to the willed, not
 * Being well-read, he


 * Did not remember the history behind their old and geometrical
 * Gardens, could not recall a time when the English
 * Parliament had killed a bill,


 * Shocked by a jackdaw's flight across the room. He simply marked
 * The absence of uncaged birds in their homes. He thought
 * It was strange.

Comments and criticism
The poem has received positive reviews since its first publication in 1995 in the book Emerging Voices and has since been widely anthologised. The poem has been frequently quoted in scholarly analysis of contemporary Indian English poetry.