The Windhover

A few hours ago on our morning walk with Uschi (our six-year-old eighty-eight pound German Shepherd), sun shone gold, ocean dazzled dark blue.

Bill and I chatted…sparingly. Our hearts are heavy. A cherished friend is at the last stage of a painful mortal illness and soon will leave us.

As we walk, normally we plan the day before us. Bill holds Uschi’s leash…I no longer need the support of a stick. Often I drift and dream.

This morning I kept hearing the lines of Gerard Manley Hopkins’ sonnet inspired by a kestrel:

“I caught this morning morning’s minion, kingdom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon…”

How glorious…one hundred forty-seven years ago in London, a thirty-three-year-old Jesuit knew my feeling this sad but beautiful Santa Cruz morning.

If you aren’t familiar with Hopkins’ poetry, I am thrilled to introduce you to a heartbreakingly original and soaringly spiritual genius.

The Windhover
Gerard Manley Hopkins 1844 – 1889

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-  
  dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding  
  Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding  
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing  
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
  As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding  
  Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding  
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!  
  
Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here  
  Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!  
  
  No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion  
Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,  
  Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.

This poem is in the public domain.

Note Please – WordPress won’t allow me to insert the indents specific to this poem, but if you want to read it with the proper indents, click the link I included in the poem title.