day and night/silent wings

day and night,
my house is surrounded
by sacred wings….

two hawks call to each other across my roof
in the still dawn….

their screes grace the silence,
point to the silence….

they dance on newly lifting currents of air
caused by the difference between night and day,
cold and warm
dark and light….

they call then,
and sometimes they come back just before noon,
when drafts of air surge up off the warming hillsides….

their calls ring like temple bells:
reminding me to be still for a moment,
to stop and touch the eternal in the day,
to take a breath and offer myself to the mystery….

and there is one
who calls
as the sun turns orange
and falls slowly down
into the silent swelling cotton layer
that covers the western ocean,
drawn up over the day like a soft blanket….

this one summons the night-shift:
the ones who will soar over me as I
live on in the darkness,
as I sleep,
and dream,
and sometimes dance….

after the night is well-established,
their sounds, too, pierce the trying-to-be-silent night….

the barn owls
and the great horned owls cry
shrill ghostly gliding white cries
as they come hurtling over my roof,
tracking their crawling prey….

and if you’re outside walking in
that rare warm coastal air,
oohing and ahing over the surprising sharp blue glints
of priceless diamond stars making a
one-night-only appearance….

if you’re out there,
you can sometimes catch a glimpse
of white wings glowing high above you in the night,
coming in fast,
and soon gone –
right over your head,
without a sound….

but a sheerly distant whistle drifts somewhere behind
those silent wings,
as if to leave behind the certain trace
of their untouchable presence….

and on the very darkest nights,
there is one
who comes to the roof-corner
right by my bedroom….

and even though the window might be closed
against the damp and chilly night air,
he announces his landing
with an unmistakable, commanding scree….

I am here for the night.

I sleep and wake
under the jurisdiction
of sacred wings….

___________
© 2010
Beth Anne Boardman


(image courtesy
tunisia online news
http://www.tunisiaonlinenews.com/?p=3514)