by Bill Yarrow
Andalusia
I.
partners in sunset
the hawk and I in ballet
..............................he:..........the small flame in the wind
..............................I:............the last tremor of grace
the snow came from Andalusia
like a sweet tongue
......................deep in my ears
I have an appetite for...................snowfall
sunset
silence
I survive myself
I circle the summits
of the depths I reach
reflections of the hawk
faint mountain silhouette
in what heart's alchemy,
do I turn you golden?
in what heaven are you
sanctuary?
II.
the hawk flies in my blood
I am the billow of a sail
dark shadow
of the electrical storm
beside me
the swollen weather
I am the same surface
as the sea gone to fight
the butterfly and the hawk
surrender me
to the silence and modesty
of the highest hills
we are a geometry
of hard and soft
green ghosts
a parade of kinship with dust
the barnacle announces the debacle:
I am the overgrown garden
the blood of soft memory
is spilled on a tabernacle of mud
it is no longer warm in Granada: the water is defeated
and the clouds are swollen with bile
I have appetite for sunset
silence
snowfall
III.
so I will grow fat
and die
the hawk my vizier my dome
I
his saraband
his song
partners in sunset
silent separate
beings in the twilight
we circle each other
I am my neighbor's journey
of a hardship's miles
the sun bakes me in a shell
the carts of Compostela
carry me to caves saintly with moss
here they come
to rectify
I have appetite for: silence
the hawk circles my surrender
the blossoms are without greed
the sun wants its butterfly
Andalusia stands
on hawk wings
to see me now
is to see a curtain
of the mind
I have no body
snowfall
sunset
IV.
the blood of a thousand hardened dreams
decays, reduced to a prose
no longer of roses.
someone is a ballet dancer
someone is drawing in charcoal
someone holds a bowl of sea glass in his hand
someone defies the sky's existence
the moon is a hawk
with its beak
in my eye
Velasquez beside me
scribe of fire
on opposite sides of the river
the hawk and the sun
in flight beside the wind
the activity is continuous
I am born
in the instant of amethyst
the Bedouin holds a snow petal
out to the hungry hawk
the hawk snarls in the raw
of his wings
the dust moves
the hawk bristles in his feather folds
I am taken to the butterfly
silently the snow
suddenly
comes from Andalusia
V. I lie down in amethyst
all my dreams show
black silhouettes of ballerinas
in tungsten and shade
hawks retracing their steps
a land remorseful for agency
sunset?
snowfall?
silence?
there is no weather
to speak of
The hawk sings winter in his wings
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This poem was published in Up the Staircase #6 (July 2009) and in Levure littéraire in 2017.
This poem appears in THE VIG OF LOVE (Glass Lyre Press, 2016).
I like the poem as a whole, but I think the first stanza by itself is just wonderful.
Beautamous. The first stanza -- moves me to tears. Printing to read, to savor, to fold in my journal and pull out when I need to read poetry. Peace...
You remind me why I (sometimes) like poetry. I am moved likewise. So many caressing lines. "partners in sunset" and "The hawk sings winter" among my favorites. Congratulations on writing this!
Bill. Bill! This is brilliant in so many ways. The form. The word choices. I'm gonna be reading this one many times. Fine and BRAVE work my friend. fav
Strong work, Bill. The writer disappears. And the poem takes over. That's so hard for a poet to do.
But, if anyone wants to write good poems, that's necessary. Give the poem its space - as you do here.
Good work.
"I survive myself." You had me at this, then carried me away.
Bill, this is amazing work, and something I will read over and over again. Just stunning. Thanks for this.
“The hawk flies in my blood.” Your poem, Bill, has a special quality that makes it irresistibly attractive. Poetry by my all-time favourite poet, the Andalusian-born Federico Garcia Lorca, has this same magical force: duende. Fave.
in what heaven are you
sanctuary?
how many times have I asked that question? :)
"reduced to a prose" I'll have to ponder that one for a while.
Bravo!