the redtail swoops wide circles

6.30.10

the redtail swoops wide circles
over the soft green field
the black tips of its wings angle
so slightly, caressing the
warming summer morning air
and thrusting its body
deftly through the
arc of the radius and
unflinchingly into a
death dive

a deafening silence,
more, a rush of wind
deep, instinctive shudders
send the field dwellers
rushing for cover
but eyes of red marble
and talons forged of iron
descend to the earth
as fast as lightning
and in a thunderous clatter of wings
and a flash of razor-sharp beak
one life ends, and another is preserved

just a few moments later
the grasses still
the hot summer air sits calm
in its bluish haze
butterflies dance across flowertops
and small birds flicker in the brush
alongside forgetful and foraging
prairie dogs

the rapturous death dissolves
into the heat of the day

two smallish, brown and white birds

6.24.10

two smallish, brown and white birds

arced through the azure sky

the quiet hum of perfectly angled

summer sunlight completed and beheld

every winged, harmonious nuance

of their impeccable flight

were they lovers

and was there grasping

in their rhapsodic 

ariel dance

you see, what I saw

touched my mind and my heart

in a place that seeks beauty

and love,

that longs for intimacy

and communion

how then, shall I know

the empty nature

of this?

the hawks are out again today

6.23.10 

the hawks are out again today

it has been a while

two or three, I think, I have seen already

hanging in the hot easterly breeze

rushing across the plains from

the Nebraska thunderheads

seeing these winged sentinels of the spirit

is a comfort to my heart, today

I slept poorly, and awoke tired

tangled and somewhat bitter dreams

found me in a restless pre-dawn and

there is a mildly stagnating unease

lingering in the crest of midday

but these raptor messengers

usher hope and sustenance

into my weariness

reminding me that 

everything changes and that

a greater vision is always

yet unfolding

yesterday, I walked in the hillsides

6.22.10

yesterday, I walked in the hillsides

the grass was tall

a melodious fugue of competing 

meadowlark trills and 

magpie squawks resonated

over a center section of 

marcato cricket song in

contrapuntal cadence 

to the gentle percussion of 

summer breeze in the 

pinion bows

the sun was just sighing

behind a deep, green ridge

and the air was hot and lusty

I took off my shirt and 

hiked to the top where

the more undisturbed boulders

lay artfully toppled in piles 

of precarious precision

for a moment

for one warm breath of wind

carrying sweet pollen and

parachuting wild dandelion spores

to the plains below

all stood still

the light shimmered off the silvery green

undersides of field grasses,

illuminated richly colored wildflowers

and captured me in a sensual feast of

now

in that singular moment

I felt a bliss, a oneness,

timelessness

just for a moment, and then

it was gone, shifting into

gratitude, and then

awe and joy, and then remembering

the bliss of a moment ago

but even in just that fleeting nowness

my soul was recharged

my heart became both lighter in spirit

and heavier in strength as it

sank into communion with the 

warm earth beneath me