American Bald Eagle, watercolor, janekohut-bartels, 2001
Recently I went through a loss and an argument. I woke up with this poem in my mouth: it expressed a lot of my feelings, especially about religion and spiritual issues.
I haven’t all the answers and I don’t expect to. That is what life seems to be all about now….the unrelenting chase of finding things that make sense, and especially promote growth: spiritual, intellectual and emotional growth.
Picking those people who are healthy for your spirit to develop is always the issue. I wish life was longer, because I need the time.
The world is Big out there….and there are wonderful people to meet. Wonderful people already in your life.
This poem is for Margie.
Lady Nyo
–
Ode to a Coopers Hawk
Come to me.
Come to me,
Winged celestial beauty.
Come to me with your notched
Mermaid tail,
Your silken roll of feathers.
Fly down into my hollowed-out soul,
Fill me with your sun-warmed glory
Nestle in my arms
And bring the curve of the horizon
Embraced in your outstretched wings.
–
I need no white bearded prophet,
No chorus of angels,
No mumbled prayer, no gospel song
No hard church bench, no fast or
Festival to feel close to the Divine.
–
The glory of the universe,
Is embodied in your flight
As you tumble through heavens,
Ride invisible thermals
Screech with joy at freedom
Fill your lungs with thin air
And play bumper car with an Eagle.
–
I, earthbound,
No hollowed bones to launch me,
Just hollowed soul to weigh down,
No soft plumage to feel the course
Of wind through glossy feathers
No hunting call to herald my presence.
–
Still my soul takes flight
The breeze lifts my spirit,
My eyes follow you,
And we will find that glory
Transcend a sullen earth,
Transcend a mean humanity
And soar together into the blue eye of God.
–
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2011
Tags: Coopers Hawk, Oneshotpoetry.blogspot.com, poetry, Spiritual things
June 27, 2011 at 1:33 am
A beautiful piece, filled with pain… yet soaring high among the clouds.
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June 27, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Hi Petrina!
Thank you for reading and your comment. Yes, filled with pain….and so is life when we feel we must defend ourselves. I’m going to try to love more by caring less.
Lady Nyo
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June 28, 2011 at 7:11 pm
Just as lovely to read as it was to hear your recitation! It makes me want to shout, Hurrah, look – there she goes!
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June 28, 2011 at 8:00 pm
Hi Margie!
Coopers Hawks are magnificent creatures….we had one a few years ago that mantled over to our back porch…with us on it.
For those who don’t know my coz Margie….She is an incredible woman. A Rock of Sanity, Sensibility and…ah….good taste! LOL! Margie was my particular rock in this very rocky last week…where she gave comfort and succouring to this mourning soul.
Thank you, Margie, for all you do and have done. And for reading these poems and your wonderful comments.
Love you dearly!
Jane
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June 28, 2011 at 9:45 pm
Very nice picture, love it. Yeah nice people and then there are those you wish would just go far away. Using sorrow as a means to soar and creating that much more, captured the picture and your thoughts wonderfully.
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June 28, 2011 at 9:56 pm
Thank you, Pat. This has been a really hard time, emotional.
Sometimes you feel kicked when you really are down. Religion can be a bitch. I generally stay away from these discussions. They don’t end well.
Thank you, Pat, for reading and your comment. I was a painter first, of wildlife and domestic animals….then became a writer and then to poetry. There really isn’t any Chinese Walls between these things, I think.
Jane
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June 28, 2011 at 10:30 pm
Beauty, sorrow, friendship – lovely
Jane you always soar in the upper hemisphere and inspire those of us on terra
Love hugs and thanks for the support you have given one shot
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June 28, 2011 at 10:32 pm
it is good to have those people that can see into us and lift us up…much more personal than the standard religeous platitudes, regardless of their truth or otherwise..the divine surrounds us and lives in those that come around…hope you are well in the face of adversity…
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June 28, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Hey Brian….
Well, I think a lot of good is in people…but religion…whether it’s the mainline stuff or the off to the sidelines brand….can really screw with you.
I think those who embrace these newer religions are as oppressive as any traditionalist. However, the divine does surround us….to me that divine can be that of Nature…mostly….and then there is another interpertation. I choose Nature.
Thank you, Brian. I’m doing ….better. Losing my dog was a big blow. I get rocked by adversity because I don’t usually know how to handle it. Animals are better.
Jane
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June 28, 2011 at 11:02 pm
Oh Moonie!
What would we do without OSP? It’s become a nourishing staple for all of us here. Thank you so much for your hard work….you and so many others.
I’m trying to soar, Moonie….have my wings clipped right now, but the good thing about feathers is that they, like hair…grow back.
Thank you for reading and your lovely comment, sweetie.
Jane
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June 28, 2011 at 11:04 pm
This poem really gave me a lift – we are surrounded, immersed in the divine wherever we be… the images are so vivid, I love birds of prey – hawks, eagles and owls… thank you for sharing your encounter
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June 28, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Hi Marousia!
I agree….we are surrounded, immersed in the divine…and many of us don’t need the dogmatic preachings of religion…of any kind to draw closer to OUR definition of that Divine.
I have a family full of Christian hypocrites….New Age or Traditional….and enough of that! LOL!
There is actually a story behind this poem….not the argument I was having with another, but a fledglng Coopers Hawk flew down to our small back porch and mantled over to where were were eating….this is shocking behavior for any wild animal, but apparently she was starving. We threw her a chicken drumstick…she flew away with it…and came back about 20 minutes later…wanting more! She flew up to the apex of the porch roof, and our son rolled sausage balls up to her. She hopped down catching them and then after about 10 minutes of this, flew off. I’ve seen her here in her territory for the past 5 years…..saw her the other day…..over the house. I always give a hunting call to her when I see her.
I think she probably is flying around thinking “Mine…mine…all mine.” LOL!
I tried religion a couple of times…but my seat was too hard, or the doctrine too forbidding, odd, or alien. I do better with critters.
Glad you liked the poem.
Hugs,
Jane
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June 29, 2011 at 12:08 am
Beautiful and sad. Rise above it all and you will be better for it 🙂
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June 29, 2011 at 12:26 am
critters are easier than people…no question about it. Spiritual beings those flying hollow boned ones…
This is beautiful, thank you for your process notes, too.
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June 29, 2011 at 2:45 am
How to wake up with this in your mouth is a prayer itself…and an answer to your questioning…the spiritual for each is unique…this hawk is obviously a part of yours…blessings…bkm
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June 29, 2011 at 6:06 am
Your relationship with nature is somehow more than spiritual, it is in the vernacular “soulful” so pure, so metaphoric that it encompasses your beingness and mirrors it with that in nature that expands it – defining you, expressing your disappointments, exulting your joys. With each work I know you in a different and more encompassed way. Exceptional work here!
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June 29, 2011 at 11:58 am
Dear Gay,
Your words have given me more than pleasure….they have given me an insight into something that escapes me, befuddles me, and in a way, isolates me from much of the humanity I know. Thank you.
I have grown disaffected with religions. Not with the concept of God or the divine, which I struggle to define, but with our ‘inheritors of the Earth’ mentality which so many times is like permission to destroy the Earth and all that inhabits it. We are only one species….yet we dominate and have little regard for all else that live beside us. The massive issue of disposable animals….pets, strays, etc…is a heart wrenching issue for me. The pollution and destruction of habitate of other species, unthinking destruction with the filth of mankind. Is this the best we can do?
Thank you, Gay, for your words: You give me lift under my wings.
Lady Nyo
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June 29, 2011 at 12:07 pm
Thank you, Barbara!
You are right: the spiritual for each of us is unique. I have tried to adopt the religions of others, but they Just. Don’t. Fit.
For 20 years I watched “Sheila, Queen of the Woods” , a marvelous Red Tail Hawk fly over the kudzu fields and nest or roost in the huge oaks behind my house. Then a developer three years ago came and razed the earth and her habitate, taking 100 year oaks and sycamores and left nothing but scorched earth….9 acres behind us. Kudzu covered the scar and Sheila disappeared. Thankfully, the apartments were never built, but we can only hold our breath.
These poems are a mixture of fear and elation. I look to the sky for my friends, and the Coopers Hawk is the only one I recognize now. But she is a blessing indeed, not only because she gives me hope for the future.
Thank you so much, Barbara. Thank you for your words and your insight.
Peace.
Lady Nyo
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June 29, 2011 at 12:08 pm
Hi Brenda.
Yes, critters are easier than people! LOL!…
Thank you for reading and your insightful comment.
Hugs,
Jane
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June 29, 2011 at 12:09 pm
Hi Ayala!
Yep…..rise above it all….am trying.
Thank you, sweetie, for reading and your comment.
Lady Nyo
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June 29, 2011 at 3:51 pm
A beautiful merge of longing and appreciation. We often sit and watch the red-tailed hawks ride the the thermals here, and their grace and freedom is indeed a transcendence, to lift us up. Hang in there, girl.
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June 29, 2011 at 4:04 pm
Thank you, sweetie!
I think I can handle anything, even this damn diabetes, but losing my dog, Sparky, knocked me flat.
Thank you, Hedgewitch, for reading and your comment.
Jane
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June 29, 2011 at 4:12 pm
..Winged celestial beauty…this is how your poem feels from the first to the last line..majestic and i can feel the breeze of freedom and longing and a certain peace that comes with it
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June 29, 2011 at 6:39 pm
Hey Claudia….
Thank you….a lot of pain behind this simple poem.
Thank you for reading and your lovely comment.
Jane
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June 30, 2011 at 3:28 am
“. . . to feel close to the Divine.”
This is it, I think.
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June 30, 2011 at 10:46 am
Thank you, Mama Zen….
Lots of paths to this….
Lady Nyo
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July 24, 2011 at 7:36 am
Hi there. Congratulations.
I enjoyed your web site,the poem and the eagle.
I am a collegue from Rome,Italy,I ALSO have a web site of poems and pictures, it is in several languages ,English is included.
Those who want to visit my website are welcome.
http://www.apoesidi.com
Vladimiro Rinaldi
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July 24, 2011 at 12:58 pm
Thank you, Vlad.
I will visit your website today.
Thank you for reading “Ode to a Cooper
s Hawk and leaving a comment.
Lady Nyo
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