Welcome, 2014!
This may be the first time I’m posting anyone else’s writing on my blog, but don’t worry, I’ll start with my own poem. New Year’s Day is a good time to both do a new thing or two and affirm our traditions, so here goes. Happy New Year’s Day, all!
On Wide Wings
By the frigid light of morning, by the pale edge of the sky,
In the whispers of the gloaming waits a hawk that, by and by,
Stretches up his head and perches, keen eye searching on the lake,
Where the echo of the church’s bells call out: Awake! Awake!
Wings sweep wide, then, of a sudden, take him soaring to the heights
Where sunrise is turning golden, burnishing the hawk with lights
Bright as gilt, his feathers flashing as he darts across the chill-
Watered lake, and quickly splashing, snares a fish, and what was still,
Silent, peaceful, secret-keeping in the dark vault of the night,
All bursts from that quiet sleeping, with the hawk called by the light–
Now the day is fully opened, like a daffodil in spring,
Brought to bloom in joy and hope and shaded by the hawk’s wide wing–
As he soars and daylight blazes, my heart, too, begins to rise,
Knows how sweet this best of days is, that would raise me to the skies.
* Emily Dickinson:
Hope
“Hope” is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—
And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—
I’ve heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.
Wonderful
Hope *is* full of wonder. 🙂
Thank you for your beautiful poem and Hope by Emily Dickinson. A beautiful way to begin the new year:)
May your year be beautiful all the way through, my friend!
I don’t think Miz Emily would mind, do you?
Happy New Year to you and the Maestro! 😀
I think Emily would be astonished to know how widely she’s known and how frequently read. Hope 2014 has begun fabulously for you and your crew, too! xoxo
Wow! What a beautifully poetic start to the New Year Kathryn! Thank you, your poem is an absolute delight and those photos are quite amazing!
This poem by Emily Dickinson is the first I read of hers when someone directed me toward her at the beginning of my writing two years ago,and so it carrries some sitnificance for me in my journey into poetry. Its lovely to read it on New Year’s Day. Both this poem and yours bring a much needed freshness wiping away the Christmas cobwebs which I always bump into aound January.
I don’t know whether this was my first intro to ED’s poetry too, but it stands out not only because I like it but for being referenced by a Woody Allen book that cracked me up immensely, ‘Without Feathers’. 😉 I’m so glad you enjoyed the post, the memory it evoked, and the photos (the hawk is one that is in ‘rehab’ in Seattle, so I got to be quite close to photograph him).
“On Wide Wings”, splendid poem. And, thank you for Emily D’s “Hope” (has been many a winter since reading that one). Thank you for both works of art…
You are very welcome, dearest. So happy you liked!