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The Day of the Hawk

Text of Poem

I went to the city
and ate my loneliness
where everybody is nobody
who cried in a loud voice,
‘‘reject him.’’
The rivers smelled of decay
and air blinded my eyes
with the dust from chimneys.
I went to the country
and listened to solitude
but the man who killed the deer
cried, ‘‘I am a man and this
is only an animal.’’
He offered to feed me but
the bloody flesh sealed my mouth.
I walked beside a small stream
that led me into the mountain
and found a strange woman
nursing a dead fire.
‘‘My white cape is soiled,’’
she told me, ‘‘and the spirit
no longer comes when I wear it.’’
I looked at the sky and saw
a huge hawk in the wind,
his eyes brighter than fire,
his talons curved scimitars,
his wings shadowed the world.

First Line
I went to the city
Original Pub Location
Original Publication Date
1970
Original Citation
Aspen Times (27 Aug. 1970) 13b.
Complete Poems
224
Word Count
141
Poetic Form
open
Themes
Twitter Quote
The rivers smelled of decay / and air blinded my eyes / with the dust from chimneys.