The other day I was driving along when a hawk came swooping down, barely missing my windshield. The hawk was too focused to see anything other than its prey, which was on the opposite side of the road. It was fortunate that I had not been driving a wee bit faster! We were lucky, but perhaps the prey would have thought differently...
This poem by Robert Frost captures a similar near-miss:
Questioning Faces
The winter owl banked just in time to pass
And save herself from breaking window glass.
And her wings straining suddenly spread
Caught color from the last of evening red
In a display of underdown and quill
To glassed-in children at the windowsill.
The owl, the children, and the reader, were all beneficiaries of luck that evening!
Head over to visit Margaret at Reflections on the Teche for the Poetry Friday Round-Up.
Photo by bobosh_t.
Wow, that sounds like a heartstopper for sure! Kind of cool to think you presumably had a similar experience to Robert Frost, though.
ReplyDeleteI once wrote a poem about roses and apples, and then, to my horror/delight, I found that Frost had written on on the same subject! I guess since we both have lived in New England, we'd share many experiences.
ReplyDeleteWe used to take country drives with my husband's mother (in Missouri) & had this happen with a huge owl one time. It swooped down & I nearly ended up in a ditch trying to avoid. Your story and the poem brought that back so vividly! I'm happy you weren't driving faster, too! And the poem captures that moment, as Frost does, exactly right. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI once heard a wildlife rehabilitator speak and she said that they get a lot of owls injured in that way. It's one of drawbacks of intensely focusing on one tiny thing--you never see the two ton car that's heading your way!
ReplyDeleteWe have hawks on the highway watching the fields for prey. I've never had one fly toward me but I can imagine it. Robert Frost has a wonderful way with rhyme that I deeply admire.
ReplyDeleteAnd it seems so effortless!
DeleteWe've had a lot of near misses with various birds in our car. What slays me is the quail who take off in fright and run into our house windows...sometime with fatal results. What are they thinking? Thanks for sharing Frost's poem, Diane! =)
ReplyDeleteI love birds, but they do seem to be stupider than one would expect!
DeleteI like the idea of sharing experiences with Frost!
ReplyDeleteIt's even easier to consider here where I live. About 5 miles up the road is Frost Farm and so many of the places he wrote about!
DeleteThat's a lovely poem, Diane - Frost has so many lines or phrases that I wish I'd written ("...a display of underdown and quill" for example! Spoken aloud, the three syllables of "underdown" dip down just like the owl must have done in flight. Perfect. ) Thanks for posting it.
ReplyDeleteAnd he does it so simply, not a bit of exaggeration.
DeleteThis is a new Frost for me -- I would have loved to have been one of those "glassed-in children"...or to have written that line!
ReplyDeleteWe had a close encounter with a hawk yesterday. S/he was lifting off across the road laden with prey. Food chain in action.
A library was weeding and I got a paperback copy of The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged for free! There are a lot of poems that are new to me in this 600 page book.
DeleteFrost is so good, isn't he? Every word carefully chosen.
ReplyDeleteI like "Questioning Faces" because it tells a complete story in six lines.
Deleteooo, I love this Frost poem! and it's one I haven't read before. always a fine spectacle: the near-miss!
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