
Young RedTail Hawk, Jane Kohut-Bartels, watercolor
Chicken Hawk!
Leave my chickens alone!
I have worked hard for them,
A handmaiden of fowl,
Collecting rainbow eggs
The gift of the species
Naturally dyed
Pink, brown, blue-green and white,
Jumbled in the nest,
Warm succulent fruit
Awaiting the promise of birth.
Such precious gems
Presented at Easter,
Symbol of the Lamb of God,
The Spring of Life.
Leave my chickens alone, hawk.
I won’t even share.
Yet,
I remember two short years ago,
When I saw you wheeling over the kudzu
Riding the thermals,
Not graced with the brick-colored tail
Of a proper Red Tail hawk–
And I gasped at your splendor,
a winged God from the cosmos,
glittering white ash against a cobalt sky,
And you landed one day in my birdbath,
Trying to look like a stone sculpture,
And just the flicker of your 8x eyes
Looked over the songbirds for lunch.
Jane Kohut-Bartels
Copyrighted, 2016
Tags: "Chicken Hawk Talk", d'verse prompt, Jane Kohut-Bartels, my painting: red tailed hawk', poetry
September 27, 2016 at 8:51 pm
Jane, I really like your double-take on this, the seeing of it from both sides. And this line is gorgeous:
“glittering white ash against a cobalt sky”
I can see it.
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September 27, 2016 at 8:51 pm
Do you raise aracana chickens? The egg shells have such lovely colors. Yes, redtails can be very predatory but oh! So very graceful. I am always on the lookout for themwhen watching out for my bluebirds.
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September 27, 2016 at 8:56 pm
Beautiful imagery in your writing about eggs and hawk, both!
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September 27, 2016 at 8:58 pm
LOL! You better! Those poor bluebirds. Yes, aracanas and lace wings, and reds. (can’t remember their names, except Dolly Parton, Missy, 4 Little Women…etc…and a poor rooster who got beaten up by the hens when he first arrived. LOL!)
RTs are graceful out in the thermals, but in the woods…they are very clumsy. LOL! I don’t know why RTs are given as the bird to train with to amateur falconers….but I think it’s to try the human’s patience. My redtail mostly hung herself upside down on her perch. LOL! I would try to right her up, and she would hiss and loop down again. LOL!
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September 27, 2016 at 8:59 pm
Thank you, Gizmo! I have had a lot of talking to with birds of prey. They generally don’t listen. LOL!
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September 27, 2016 at 9:02 pm
Thank you, very much. I took an older poem and expanded it a bit, as I am having too much fun to miss a prompt at d’verse right now.
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September 27, 2016 at 9:10 pm
Lol…it’s funny. I have several nests of bluebirds that gang together and chase the hawks away. The crows join them. Makes for a terrible ruckus. RTs in this neck of the woods are fierce. I had a friend who placed a basket of young kittens outside to get some sun. They ended up being bird food. Very sad. Within a few minutes, no less. All whisked away to RT nests. Never did falconry. Love to watch though.
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September 27, 2016 at 9:11 pm
That last stanza is a wonderful poem on its own!
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September 27, 2016 at 9:14 pm
Oh my god…my heart breaks for those poor kittens. There is nothing I love more and a basket of kittens. Sigh.
Oh, funny,….the crows and bluebirds. Well, this is good, because a RT can, as you know destroy tout suite!
Falconry became a pain in the butt. You can’t raise a toddler and a hawk….the cross contamination could really get one or the other (probably the kid) sick. They need a certain amount of carrion (the bird, not the kid…) and that is iffy at best.
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September 27, 2016 at 9:15 pm
Thank you, Kim…I’ll be over tomorrow morning. Thank you again.
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September 27, 2016 at 10:08 pm
I like the shift in voices and perspective – From the fierce mother to the one admiring the beauty of hawk ~ This one really stood out for me: glittering white ash against a cobalt sky ~ Thanks Jane for joining us ~
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September 27, 2016 at 10:40 pm
Thank YOU, for having me.
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September 27, 2016 at 10:47 pm
I’d love to see a pix of your terrier. They are great dogs. Never had one before, so we are exploring our species together. LOL~
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September 27, 2016 at 10:50 pm
Such wonderful images here 😀
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September 28, 2016 at 2:55 am
I know. The kittens were a heartbreak and my friend still weeps over them, all these years later. It is funny to see a stream of bluebirds and crows on the tail of a hunting hawk, trailing it, dogging it. I lose very few bluebirds.
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September 28, 2016 at 3:09 am
That’s pretty traumatic. It would haunt me, too. Poor babies. I had a cocker who killed one of the most beautiful 5 week old kittens I ever saw…out of a litter of 4. Emily. Years ago, and I still am haunted by this.
I haven’t seen a bluebird in years. I do have lots of cardinals, though. And yes, it’s pretty funny to see crows or sparrows going after a hawk. Twists and turns.
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September 28, 2016 at 3:15 am
Thank you, Sanaa. I’m going to try to find your blog and read! I’m not on twitter, so I’m a bit stumped. Can you send me your blog address?
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September 28, 2016 at 4:42 am
You have to admire the beauty of a predator – despite what they might do to your chickens… Love the plea juxtaposed agains the awe of the beauty…
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September 28, 2016 at 11:09 am
Many aspects and mysteries of the birds go unnoticed by the laymen; the ups and downs of raising them, knowing what is like to see good as well as the bad…I enjoyed reading this.
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September 28, 2016 at 11:59 am
Thank you for reading and your comment.
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September 28, 2016 at 12:04 pm
Yes, Bjorn. What you site as the plea juxtaposed against the awe of the beauty….I guess that’s just a ‘way’ into the poetry. I don’t know. I learn more from readers of my poems than I am ever conscious of in the writing. Thank you, Bjorn.
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September 28, 2016 at 12:07 pm
Yes that’s the amazing thing about blogging…
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September 28, 2016 at 2:09 pm
that’s part of it….the exposure. And of course that comes with issues…but the bigger picture or issue I feel is this: How conscious, or when are we conscious of the interplay of voices in our work? Is it something we rely upon, or is it purely accident? I don’t know where this discussion, on what poetry site, this can be held, but to me….there are all sorts of issues that go into poetry…the forming of poetry, that we …IF we are conscious of their effects, we can use to our advantage in our poetry. For me, it’s mostly a hit or miss thing, or perhaps it’s being in something akin to Hyperarousal Trance. It’s a brain wave (theta) that goes deep into the creativity. Of course, it’s not generally well known, but IF it is tapped into ….it can bring amazing results. It seems to me that only belly dancers, musicians, know about this issue.
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September 28, 2016 at 4:59 pm
I enjoyed the contrasts in time and perspectives, the hawk feared as a predator and admired for it’s beauty. Lovely work.
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September 28, 2016 at 6:32 pm
Thank you, Mish. Thank you for reading and your encouraging comment.
Jane
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September 28, 2016 at 6:37 pm
So sad the natural tragedies. We have a ton of bluebirds in our yard along with all the other birds. Our yard is a paradise for birds. When we bought the house, I set about making the yard bird friendly. And now, it is! I’ve noticed the tiny goldfinches are starting to lose their brilliant gold color. Now I know that jn spite of the heat, fall is on the way.
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September 28, 2016 at 6:49 pm
Oh! I never thought of the finches and other birds loosing color would be tied with seasons. Makes wonderful sense!
Oh, bluebirds!!! I haven’t seen but one in all these years here in Atlanta…but the finches, the mockers, the cardinals….we got loads. LOL! And have you noticed the amount of yellow butterflies these last few weeks??? Amazing.
I posted Chapter 13 of Kimono thinking of you a bit. Yamabushi are a specialty for me….in belief and study. I try to work in tengus whenever I can. I wrote tengus into “the Shibari Series” just because they fascinate me. I am sure you know of them, too.
Hugs, Jane…..
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September 29, 2016 at 1:24 am
I love the little yellow butterflies. Yes, there are so many of them! Yes I know about tengus but have not tried them. Being a bear of little brains, trying to perfect my haiku technique is about all I can handle. I have a pair of bachelor birds – a brown thrasher and a mocking bird. I have dubbed them Peat and Repeat because of the reptitions they sing. After a couple of summers, i was finally able to teach thtem he first six notes of the XFiles theme. It is funny to hear it floating about on the air, over and over….
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September 29, 2016 at 1:28 am
I apologize. You meant tengu as in a spirit of types. My tired brain read it as renga.
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September 29, 2016 at 12:59 pm
Hysterical….Pete and Repeat.
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September 29, 2016 at 7:36 pm
Fantastic work Jane. Just spectacular!
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September 29, 2016 at 7:44 pm
Thank you. I embellished an older poem, but it fit the prompt. Thank you again for reading and your kind comment.
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