Thanks to Don Yorty for reminding us of this beautiful poem by Charles Baudelaire

The Albatross

Often to amuse themselves sailors
Catch albatross, huge sea birds
Who follow, indolent companions of the voyage
The gliding ship over the salty deep.

Scarcely have they thrown them on deck
When these kings of the blue, awkward and ashamed
Pitifully let their great white wings
Drag like they’re oars alongside of them.

This winged voyager can’t stand on his feet
So recently beautiful an ugly joke.
One knocks on its beak with his pipe.
Another mimes, limping, the cripple who flew.

The Poet is like the Prince of the Clouds
Who laughs at the archer and rides above storms.
Surrounded by jeers, pulled down from the sun
His giant wings won’t let him walk.

…