Friday, August 18, 2006

Poetry Friday 14

Yesterday was former Poet Laureate Ted Hughes' birthday, so I thought that this week I would give you a poem of his for Poetry Friday.


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 wrote poetry, plays and novels for children, including Collected Plays for Children, The Iron Man, The Iron Woman and Collected Poems for Children (which I really must borrow from the library at some point !).

3 comments:

Lee said...

Have a look at his Poetry in the Making too - read the last paragraph in the book first!

Michele said...

I'll do that - I'll see if the library has that as well as the Collected Poems for Children anthology.

Michele said...

OK, I've reserved both books as the children's poetry anthology isn't held at the Central library, and the other one is out on loan until early September...