{"id":146,"date":"2010-11-19T18:45:00","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/?p=146"},"modified":"2010-11-19T18:45:00","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:45:00","slug":"august-kleinzahler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/2010\/146\/poems\/august-kleinzahler\/","title":{"rendered":"August Kleinzahler"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Anniversary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You&#8217;d figure the hawk for an isolate thing,<br \/>\ncommanding the empyrean,<br \/>\ntaking his ease in the thermals and wind<br \/>\nuntil that retinal flick, the plunge and shriek &#8211;<br \/>\ncruelly perfect at what he is.<br \/>\nWith crepe myrtle igniting the streets<br \/>\nand flowering pansy underfoot<br \/>\nI&#8217;d get out there just after dawn each day,<br \/>\nbefore the sun made it over the mesquite and honey locust.<br \/>\nCliff swallows rocketed low over grass,<br \/>\ndragonflies darted above:<br \/>\nevery day, on the heels of first birdsong, juice-heads<br \/>\nsleeping rough by the culvert.<br \/>\nBefore the heat,<br \/>\nbefore the ebb and flow of cicada whirr swallowed the world,<br \/>\nwhen the crepe myrtle was still in bloom,<br \/>\nwhen it was the flowering pansies&#8217; time in the park and untended lots,<br \/>\nand still a touch of cool in the air.<br \/>\nI remember once, a red-tail perched close by<br \/>\non a branch or utility pole.<br \/>\nMaybe he came down for a better look,<br \/>\nbut I think it was so that I might better see him,<br \/>\nwho reigned over these few acres and beyond<br \/>\nand what it was about him so overmastering.<br \/>\nAn ugly sheen encouraged some gold in his russet mantle.<br \/>\nHis belly was white.<br \/>\nLook at me, he seemed to be insisting.<br \/>\nBehold, a pure wild heartless thing,<br \/>\nbeautiful and horrible, nothing in-between.<br \/>\nI one day saw him tearing at his prey:<br \/>\nhe was in the crook of a tree, low and close at hand,<br \/>\nfixed on it, drunk with it, mercilessly at it,<br \/>\nthe sound like a cleaver tearing through meat,<br \/>\ncruelly what he was, nothing else.<br \/>\nBut on another day, not long after, I heard him,<br \/>\nperched high on a branch, calling out,<br \/>\ncrying out in distress, piteously,<br \/>\n<em>kee-eeee-arrr<\/em>, <em>kee-eeee-arrr<\/em><br \/>\na harsh, descending sound, and unrelenting,<br \/>\n<em>kee-eeee-arrr<\/em> <em>kee-eeee-arrr<\/em>,<br \/>\npanicked or wounded, terrible in his dismay,<br \/>\nuntil, suddenly, from some other corner of sky<br \/>\nanother hawk flew down to join him,<br \/>\nnot right there on the same branch but on another, close by.<br \/>\nAnd soon after that, off they flew together,<br \/>\ndrifting, spiralling, higher and higher<br \/>\nin partnered loops, wheeling and diving,<br \/>\nenraptured by all they were, were able to do,<br \/>\nnot as separate beings, but as two.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anniversary You&#8217;d figure the hawk for an isolate thing, commanding the empyrean, taking his ease in the thermals and wind until that retinal flick, the plunge and shriek &#8211; cruelly perfect at what he is. With crepe myrtle igniting the streets and flowering pansy underfoot I&#8217;d get out there just after dawn each day, before <a href='http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/2010\/146\/poems\/august-kleinzahler\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-4-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}