Today’s quote is from The Cold Heaven, by W.B. Yeats and is inspired by watching the hawk that perches every day on the overhead electricity cable that runs over the field boundary, surveying his or her hunting ground.
‘Suddenly I saw the cold and rook-delighting heaven’
Photo ©Tim Sträter
The hawk on the wire looks down
Upon the world of creeping things,
Regards with lordly indifference the rest.
Above his head, the sweep of sky,
Fills with wind and billowed cloud.
Soon the rain of leaves will cease,
Fallen gold will crisp to silver in the night,
And on the snow, the red of berry-blood.
The hawk on the swaying wire
Peers, the daylight hours waning,
And in the frozen wastes of the world,
Spies the warm beating of a tiny heart.
Jane Dougherty Writes 
Reblogged this on Die Erste Eslarner Zeitung – Aus und über Eslarn, sowie die bayerisch-tschechische Region!.
Thanks Michael 🙂
This is just so ….. I can feel the cold and see the coming of winter. The tiny heart sacrificed by nature for a higher heart to survive…. Cruel but nesacary. 💜
That’s how nature works, you’re right—out of necessity. Only we (and a couple of small animals we despise) do it for fun.
Mostly us though! 🌹🌹
We are wonderful, aren’t we?
We are 💜🌹🌹
🙂
Ah, you could have chosen this prompt especially for me. I love our rooks, even though they are noisy and there are an awful lot of them.
https://fmmewritespoems.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/a-month-with-yeats-6/
I used to enjoy watching them come home to roost too. It’s the fact that they are noisy and appear to have favourite perches that makes them attractive.
Those last two lines- breathtaking!!! This one soars!!! Bravo Jane!!!
Here is my Monday lunch offering- dark of course;
https://deuxiemepeau.blog/2017/11/06/while-you-were-dreaming-day-6-of-a-month-with-yeats/
I try not to read your poem until I’ve written mine. Yours is much crueller, but so atmospheric. Ended with a shudder.
We each took a familiar scene, a bird against the sky and wrote about it. Cruel, maybe. I’m glad I’m not a mouse 🙂
The cycle of life.
It has to happen.
Back to darkness
https://rivrvlogr.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/rook-delighting-heaven/
Your poem reminded me of a white-tailed hawk that perched on the maple tree sheltering our backyard deck. A raptor of such beauty. When I blinked, it vanished!
They are magnificent birds to watch.
Indeed!
powerful poem, Jane 🙂
https://ladyleemanilablog.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/a-month-with-yeats-day-six/
Thank you 🙂
This was tough as the image of the hawk I see definitely was not the hawk Yeats saw. Ultimately I tried to roll both the images into one. Let me know if it worked.
here is the shortlink : https://wp.me/p73yZZ-3Ly
I think you see hawks more or less as I see them.
I feel relieved.
Here’s my offering for Day 6:
https://frankjtassone.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/a-troika-quadrilla-hawk-haunted-rook-delighting-heaven/
Thanks, Frank 🙂
It is sad (and unpleasant) to watch them kill, but as others have said, part of nature. And they are amazing.
We tend to get upset and self-righteous about sweet liddle mouses getting eaten by big cruel birdies, then tuck into our lamb chops. As you say, it’s part of nature. I’m not sure that industrial abattoirs are.
I combined day 5 and day 6. 🙂
https://merrildsmith.wordpress.com/2017/11/07/the-siren-calls-yeats-challenge-day-5-and-6/
Here we go…
https://katmyrman.com/2017/11/06/into-oblivion/
Loved this verse Jane. This is going to be a fabulous month! So inspiring! ~kat
You can’t go wrong with Yeats, that’s for sure 🙂