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Monday, May 16, 2022

EIGHT LESSONS IN TRAINING A GOSHAWK

 


I
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.


for my prompt at earthweal: Lessons From the Wild. This was the story Helen Macdonald told in H is For Hawk, a most fascinating tale of an inter-species relationship.


9 comments:

  1. "until my spirit rose from its bed of grief and flew." Truly, a merging.

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  2. I had never heard of a goshawk until reading your poem. Smiles. I really liked the last stanza, the idea of uniting one's wild parts with one's human parts! Great imagery.

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  3. this is so lovely...earning the trust of an animal.

    i adore the title of your blog 'stardreaming.'

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  4. We have so much to learn from each other...each relationship must be reciprocal.

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  5. Such an intimate portrait of how we learn about our own nature through gaining the trust of another living creature: heartwarming!

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  6. How extraordinary to form such a relationship with a goshawk. They are bird that figures in my life from time to time. Recently one came and landed on the bottlebrush tree outside my kitchen window and looked straight at, It was very strange. Suzanne - Wordpress 'Mapping Uncertainty'

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  7. Really well done Sherry and an excellent lesson in inter-species communication. Both have to get past a certain part of their own nature to find the shared ground.

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  8. You tell it as if it all happened to you, Sherry. Vivid and straight to the heart of the wild within us that yearns for that trust and connection.

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  9. You can learn so much from animals. When they trust and love you there is nothing better

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