Daily Archives: April 19, 2018

Hawk Roosting ~ Ted Hughes

 in Poetry / Uncategorized by

Hawk Roosting

I sit in the top of the wood, my eyes closed.
Inaction, no falsifying dream
Between my hooked head and hooked feet:
Or in sleep rehearse perfect kills and eat.

The convenience of the high trees!
The air’s buoyancy and the sun’s ray
Are of advantage to me;
And the earth’s face upward for my inspection.

My feet are locked upon the rough bark.
It took the whole of Creation
To produce my foot, my each feather:
Now I hold Creation in my foot

Or fly up, and revolve it all slowly –
I kill where I please because it is all mine.
There is no sophistry in my body:
My manners are tearing off heads –

The allotment of death.
For the one path of my flight is direct
Through the bones of the living.
No arguments assert my right:

The sun is behind me.
Nothing has changed since I began.
My eye has permitted no change.
I am going to keep things like this.

Ted Hughes from “Lupercal” 1960

 

Hawk Roosting ~ Ted Hughes

 

 

 

April Is Poetry Month ~ What Are You Reading?

 in Poetry by

April is Poetry Month when readers and word loving people are encouraged to delve into poetry instead of prose and explore the world of words.

Often considered a rarefied medium and quite high brow poetry definitely isn’t for everyone, and often is shunned by students and the public at large. Quite interesting really as the first forms of literature for infants is often poetry and nursery rhymes. Think Mother Goose and all the little rhymes that children learn, The Owl And The Pussycat, Three Little Speckled Frogs, The Wheels On The Bus, and so much more. The repetitive rhythm of these gives a physical comfort to young ones and act as something calming and assuring as you know what is coming next.

So, what happens when you grow up? Well, there are no doubt books, articles and research into why poetry falls out of favor. Possibly the spareness of words, the depth of focus, the lack of where it is going? Who knows? Nevertheless April is the month where we are encouraged to spend a little time with poems. And as in other years we will reflect on some.

Hopefully we will find a poem or two that speaks to you, introduces you to something fresh. And there are lots of interesting poems here from other years. Just put poem in the search box.

What do you think? What are you reading?