The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 8:11am
I open My Window
to the cries of gulls
& flash My Eyes against
the light out over
My Morning Ocean
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 9:45am
I raise The Window
on The Morning Light
to assure My Kitchen’s Order
I hear The Gulls
& know Their Flight
while Song Birds
choose to loiter
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 6:34pm
I have found happiness
in the stillness of the air
I have found happiness
in the songs of the birds
I have found happiness
in the company of cats
& with a sleeping husband
I have found
that I am
whole
The Hawk Back Yard 2:20pm
Birds are like Stars
moving together in a swath
according to One Another
Their Blurred Wings
spread the illumination
Their Bodies carry
the vivid spectacle
of form out of reach
The Hawk Deck 10:22am
Every Wave that crashes
goes through Me like a shot
invigorating My Cell Collection
so that I may never stop
They form the background
for The Birds Who sing
all My Favourite Songs
Together Our Surf & Flight
compel Me to belong
The Hawk Kitchen Outpost 3:20pm
I Have A Gull
Who Knows His Place
He Sits, raw
on My Right Middle Finger
a chunk of amethyst
bought Myself
next to My Included Refinement
bought Myself
He gets thrown hunks
of out-dated bread
from My Left Hand Fingers
dead-weighted with the diamonds
of marital promise
swallowed whole
while holding His Ground
The Hawk Queen Bed 8:57pm
Yesterday on The Trail
in Barrington Bay
I heard The Willets
The Sound of Childhood
in Jordan Bay
My Grandfather wrote
about The Willet’s song
in Anchorage Northeast:
“My own ear has seldom caught “Willet”
in the famous and far-piercing call.
To me it is pilly-will-wee,
with the accent on the last syllable,
or pill-wee-wee, with the accent
on the second,
in either case repeated over and over
and virtually always in flight.
It is a high, hurrying, questioning cry,
urgent of something I can only imagine,
a glad sound on the bird’s coursings of the shore,
a call of fulfillment(sic)
and the June-morning glory
of being alive and a-wing.”
Howard Talbot Walden 2nd
Anchorage Northeast p.189
The Hawk Dining Room 12:50pm
He’s out there write now
pecking around the stone wall
dividing our property from the neighbours’
He’s a Northern Flicker
with a brilliant red crest
on the back of His Head
black bib under His Chin
(if birds have chins)
tabby striping on His Back
& buff with black spots underneath
He’s been here since I first spotted Him
at the other stone wall along the drive
— He seems to find stuff
among the rocks
with His Long Beak — He’s a Woodpecker
Colaptes Auratus
Oh, He just pooped!
Note: He’s a She – minus a back “moustache”
The Tomato-coloured Couch 2:28pm
Numerous Little Black Birds
of an unknown variety
spun Themselves into a bulbous school
& flew around behind
with My Head in A Whirl
to see Them light
straight-lined on a wire
The Hawk Corner Room 4:34pm
I just watched 9 Canada Geese
flying North
past My Picture Window —
I’m such a novice birdwatcher
I could only tell They were Geese
by Their Long Necks
(at least I had the sense to count Them)
Joanna Gilman Hyde 