photo credit: Chris O'Reilly
First, I had to become invisible,
so she could learn to accept me.
We sat the difficult, patient,
excruciating hours together,
her hooded, at times, for calmness,
my eyes averted,
until she could be with me unmasked,
without fear.
II
Next, I had to make her hunger,
so when I offered food
on my extended fist
she would come to me.
This was a dance that took some time
to choreograph.
III
I did not know,
until she laughed,
that goshawks were capable
of play.
IV
We walked the hill to the field in dread,
her on my arm,
she because she was terrified,
I because I feared
she'd fly away.
V
The hardest thing to learn
was trusting
she'd return.
VI
It took many fails a day
for a week,
her falling, hobbled,
to the ground,
angry and glaring,
and then we got it right -
she flew right to me.
VII
In the brambles,
her first time loose,
caught by the bracken,
her yellow eyes
looked to me
for rescue. Trust.
VIII
I thought I was training her
to be a goshawk,
but she was teaching me
to unite my wild and human parts,
until my spirit rose
from its bed of grief
and flew.
I wrote this after reading a most wonderful book, H is for Hawk, by Helen Macdonald, about the training of a goshawk, an intense process of inter-species bonding and communication. Shared with earthweal's open link.
H is for Hawk is on my list of books to read, Sherry! I love your eight lessons, the way your poem progresses, especially the lines:
ReplyDelete‘I did not know,
until she laughed,
that goshawks were capable
of play’;
‘The hardest thing to learn
was trusting
she'd return’;
and the joyful ending.
How wonderful, how vast, the communication here. Interspecies faith requires work, humility and ... faith.
ReplyDeleteAhhh I loved this so much! I loved H is for Hawk, and rarely find a fellow reader who loved it as much, because it deals with the complexity and rawness of new grief.
ReplyDeleteI think the poem is perfect in structure, because it took Helen so long to train Mabel, excruciatingly long...
Sending you love across the oceans xxx
Oh, I really enjoyed this. I will put this book on my reading list. I am drawn to the hawk and the hawk to me.
ReplyDelete