The Shadow of Extinction
Numerous hawks, hapless and helpless
Are sitting downcast on the ground
Amid the dry leafless forest,
Discarding the high zone of their flight.
Their eyes are impressionless,
Wings clipped and tails curtailed,
Their claws: the hunting instruments
Cramped and contracted inward.
They are drowsing and nodding,
In a state of oblivion,
As forgetfulness to the ancient history.
Around them is a conflagration
Engulfing the woods,
The agent of autumnal wind assists the blaze,
The circle is belittling at each moment;
But the hawks with the wings clipped
Tails curtailed, contracted claws
Drowsing eyes, nodding heads,
Are waiting for the encroaching doom,
Beneath the murkiness of smoke:
Stretching over the shadow of extinction,
And far above hover the bats and owls,
Challenging the hawks.
poem by Muhammad Shanazar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Flightless Bird
My world is caged in,
I can not fly away,
I can not soar in the clouds,
With the wind and the angels.
I am a flightless bird with clipped wings.
I sit here day in and day out,
I watch so many people coming in and going out,
They stay here so happy so proud,
And they leave again without any care in the world.
I am a flightless bird with clipped wings.
I remember each face,
I remember them all saying hi waiting for a reply of hello,
They don’t understand how it feels,
They don’t understand what it’s like.
To be a flightless bird with clipped wings.
Wings tucked and head held high I sit here,
I wear a smile on my face and I keep myself beautiful and happy,
But inside all I can see are the bars that surround me,
I can’t get past them I can only sit.
I am a flightless bird with clipped wings.
My world is a room full of people myself the center of attention,
Although I should not complain for this is my life,
And I make them smile I make the children laugh and look in my eyes,
And sometimes they look into my eyes and see my world through my eyes.
They know I am a flightless bird with clipped wings.
They’ll stand and watch me as I walk around in my cage,
They’ll be there with me and try to understand.
Then they’ll have to leave and they’ll look over their shoulders.,
And they look into my eyes one last time,
Before they fly away into the world to bring back stories for the flightless bird with clipped wings,
They are my connection to the world,
They show me what they see through their eyes,
They show me wonders and beauties of a world I’ve never seen,
They are my window to the outside,
In their mind I can be a flightless bird in a world of wonder and of flight.
I am only a small bird in a cage that sits in a hotel,
Sits and watches as the world around me fly’s by,
I wait for the occasional stranger who looks into my eyes with knowing,
Maybe a person who is like me like a flightless bird in a cage,
They are my wings, the wings of a flightless bird who’s wings are clipped.
I sit in my own world and watch as it all moves by,
Day after day I watch and I say what is expected of me,
I sit in my world and I go on my own steady journey,
A journey in which I am a silent observer,
A flightless bird with clipped wings in a world of ever changing skies.
By: Bethany Maxwell
poem by Bethany Maxwell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Our Cupid
Beautiful faces
All around the place
Sweet voices
From lovely persons
But what are they to me
While deep in me
I need a face and voice
Some are in company
Some are lonely
Some hate the company
Some jealous of the lonely
Do you long for hawks? Yes, hawks!
Lonely in thought for hawks
Better be lonely
Than be ripped apart
Sucked like orange
And dumped as garbage
One day will be your strike from the cupid
poem by Izuoma Ibe
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Rumi Says
Rumi says I have wings
Asks me if I've felt the wind glide beneath them
Or had the courage to fly through clouds up high
He says I can fly
Lately, I sing on pavement ground
Wings clipped
I Keep falling down
My feathers are everywhere
But where it counts
I refuse to live in a cage
So I built my nest on the side of an old dirt road
Underneath the great wide open
Under the canopy of heaven
This is my home
I look up to the circling sky
My eyes - they can see
Where it is I'm headed
That someday
I'll be free
poem by God Diaries
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Butterflies And Kites...Goodnight
Balloons on strings,
Sailing, bouncing June
Into July kites skimming
Tails like afternoon
Mosquito hawks on quiet
Water. There! The butterfly
Making its rounds of
Moonflowers' snow petals
Enticing emerald hummingbirds,
Giant moths soundlessly
Fluttering topaz and ruby
Wings. Again! The butterfly
Dips, bobs angel-blue wings.
Balloons, kites, put away
For the night. Hummingbirds,
Butterflies vanish....
There is peace....
poem by Elysabeth Faslund
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Bigger Than My Body
This is a call to the color-blind
This is an IOU
I'm stranded behind the horizon line
Tied up in something true
Yes, I'm grounded
Got my wings clipped
I'm surrounded by
All this pavement
Guess I'll circle
While I'm waiting
For my fuse to dry
Someday I'll fly
Someday I'll soar
Someday I'll be so damn much more
Cause I'm bigger than my body gives me credit for
Why is it not my time?
What is there more to learn?
I've shed this skin that I've been tripping in
Never to quite return
Yes, I'm grounded
Got my wings clipped
I'm surrounded by
All this pavement
Guess I'll circle
While I'm waiting
For my fuse to dry
Someday I'll fly
Someday I'll soar
Someday I'll be so damn much more
Cause I'm bigger than my body gives me credit for
Cause I'm bigger than my body now
Maybe I'll tangle in the power lines
And it might be over in a second's time
But I'll glady go down in a flame
If a flame's what it takes to remember my name
Yes, I'm grounded
Got my wings clipped
I'm surrounded by
All this pavement
Guess I'll circle
While I'm waiting
For my fuse to dry
Wait for my fuse to dry
Someday I'll fly
Someday I'll soar
Someday I'll be so damn much more
Cause I'm bigger than my body
I'm bigger than my body
I'm bigger than my body now
song performed by by John Mayer
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Familiars
In the darkness
They send chills down my spine
The bare descending moon
Has burst into life
Hunting and suffering with prisoned eyes
Familiars play in moonlit skies
Beautiful Wings the servants possess
With claws so sharp they can only be from the depths
Beautiful Wings the servants possess
With claws so sharp they can only be from the
This ordinary world ain't set in stone as I thought It'd be
Just like haunted prey
Familiars are hunting me
Familiars
The nerves from the creatures
That you receive
Black magic is here
Bow down to it's knees
No emotion, Familiars can grasp
The adrenaline rush takes over so fast
Beautiful Wings the servants possess
With claws so sharp they can only be from the depths
Beautiful Wings the servants possess
With claws so sharp they can only be from the
This ordinary world ain't set in stone as I thought It'd be
Just like haunted prey
Familiars are hunting me
Familiars
These blue hearts
They will scream
They will scream
You feel them screaming, mourning in the shadows
They will scream...
* This is a song I wrote in my band, the structure and repetition would make more sense if i sung it to you but I'm quite proud of this one =)
poem by Charlotte Riley
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Clipped And Greased
What a surprise!
I am shocked to see you here.
I had heard rumors you were soaring,
High and above the clouds.
Which I thought was...
Highly unlikely.
But...
Rumors are what they are.
'Well...
Someone clipped and greased 'my' wings.'
That's an impossibility.
I thought those wings were yours?
And you grew them independently.
'Since you see me,
I may as well confess.
Those wings were not mine.
And when I took them off to get some rest,
I awakened to find them clipped and greased.'
Oh my.
So what are you going to do now?
'I'll have to find someone else,
To convince I only wish to borrow their wings,
Just to test.'
Don't look at me.
I grew these myself.
It took me years to do it too.
And besides,
I sleep with mine on.
You've 'borrowed' enough from me as it is.
And I've told you this before...
Turkeys are meant to soar!
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
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Red Hawks
Red hawks dive and swoop and soar
High above me-Could I ask for more?
I envy their majestic wings
Their view encompassing everything!
The sky is their domain no doubt
With sunlit clouds and wind about
Circling for prey with greedy eyes
Danger and beauty combined in the skies
Marvelous curiosity fills my mind with awe
Such willful defiance of gravity I never saw!
Godly miracle, the slotted wing
Unstable air to it, a minor thing
I declare these birds the Kings of Flight
Intelligent and regal in my sight
Watch them yourself and you'll believe
Seeing you there, your heart will sing
Written by Sara Fielder © 1997
poem by Sara Fielder
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Nip This In the Bud and Split
Let's take a 'trip' over the border.
And spread our wings quick,
With unlimited ease.
To fly above what others believe...
To soar,
And reach.
And...
Let's take a 'trip' over the border.
And spread our wings quick,
With unlimited ease.
To fly above what others believe...
To soar,
And reach.
You and I out of hiding can be free.
To get rid of any darkness...
Holding onto us to suppress.
And...
You and I can slip from a safety net.
That has us boxed in perceiving,
All our needs will be met,
If a trusted faith we leave...
Behind us!
Clipped and sitting and afraid to take risks.
Ready to give up.
Ready to quit.
Clipped and sitting and afraid to take risks.
Ready to give up.
Ready to quit.
Clipped and sitting and afraid to take risks.
Ready to give up.
Ready to quit.
No one who trys to fly is bored!
Let's take a 'trip' over the border.
And spread our wings quick,
With unlimited ease.
To fly above what others believe...
To soar,
And reach.
Clipped and sitting and afraid to take risks.
Ready to give up.
Ready to quit.
Nip this in the bud and split.
Get up and...
Nip this in the bud and split.
Get up and...
Nip this in the bud and split.
Get up and...
Nip this in the bud.
Nip this in the bud.
Nip this in the bud and split.
poem by Lawrence S. Pertillar
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Birds
The fierce musical cries of a couple of sparrowhawks hunting
on the headland,
Hovering and darting, their heads northwestward,
Prick like silver arrows shot through a curtain the noise of the
ocean
Trampling its granite; their red backs gleam
Under my window around the stone corners; nothing gracefuller,
nothing
Nimbler in the wind. Westward the wave-gleaners,
The old gray sea-going gulls are gathered together, the northwest
wind wakening
Their wings to the wild spirals of the wind-dance.
Fresh as the air, salt as the foam, play birds in the bright wind,
fly falcons
Forgetting the oak and the pinewood, come gulls
From the Carmel sands and the sands at the river-mouth, from
Lobos and out of the limitless
Power of the mass of the sea, for a poem
Needs multitude, multitudes of thoughts, all fierce, all flesh-eaters,
musically clamorous
Bright hawks that hover and dart headlong, and ungainly
Gray hungers fledged with desire of transgression, salt slimed
beaks, from the sharp
Rock-shores of the world and the secret waters.
poem by Robinson Jeffers
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Unripe Apples Fall
Unripe apples fall
and lie wasting on the ground,
spots spreading into brown,
circles, decaying, waiting
for sun and time to gently take
seminal seeds into the warm earth.
Small birds fall
down low
from their high, swaying tree,
to where patient
fallen apples
melt and glow.
Two looming hawks rise
waiting for the time to be right,
to turn their dark wings
and with swift silent stroke
give feathered death
to these surprised souls,
casting them like seeds
into the dark soil.
poem by Steven Federle
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A Dot In The Sky
i am used to being
a lone eagle in that highest sky
my eyes are sharp
my claws sharper and more agile
my wings are silver
my feathers platinum
when i met you
i begin to understand what pity is all about
the weakness of the scents of flowers
on those days of May
bathed me and wrapped me into a
prison of sympathy
i tried to lift you up to make you feel the power of wings
the independence of claws
the self-sufficiency of radar eyes
the vision of eternity
i learn love but with all these
i can always unlearn everything
and be back to my own wings again
now merciless, sharp, and ready to forget
you are you
that purple flower clinging to the cracks of the rocks
i am myself
in another journey without any memory
i guess this is what happens
always to that eagle in the highest sky
a dot that you see
and then erased in space.
poem by Ric S. Bastasa
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Flying without wings
i could surf the sky without my wings,
yes i can reach the sky with your blue eyes
moon, if only you believe in me
i don't even needs a wings to dive, when
i know that your are there, ready to catch
me when everything is on high
i know i can tell you that beyond that dark
clouds, you still awaits me in the shadow
of that sky
i can now ask, the reason why when iam
almost there i heard an alluring voice of
sound asking me to lay my wings
i know where my heart tremble, shaking
shouting for joy, for where ever i close my
eyes my ears listen to your voice of love
tell me then if my soul echo in a distance
land who reveals the melody of my heart,
and the spirit of your wings lingers on beneath
the horizon of my heaven
come my wings, fly and bring me to the
place where no wind could blew my dream
for only in you i will hold on to the sky of
dreams
poem by Antonio Liao
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Flight Of Stairs
Stairs fly as straight as hawks;
Or else in spirals, curve out of curve, pausing
At a ledge to poise their wings before relaunching.
Stairs sway at the height of their flight
Like a melody in Tristan;
Or swoop to the ground with glad spread of their feathers
Before they close them.
They curiously investigate
The shells of buildings,
A hollow core,
Shell in a shell.
Useless to produce their path to infinity
Or turn it to a moral symbol,
For their flight is ambiguous, upwards or downwards as you please;
Their fountain is frozen,
Their concertina is silent.
Submitted by Stephen Fryer
poem by Arthur Seymour John Tessimond
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Pelion
The small owls cry
through the centaur's woods,
bronze wings clashing
through the dry autumnal leaves.
Old battles echo in the air -
the brazen shield and iron spear
flash in the moonlight.
Caught between the fearful dream
and feared reality
the fieldmice still,
crouch lower than the rabbits in the groves.
The owls fly on,
more haunted now than hunting,
towards a time
when pale Athena, helmeted and armed,
lifted her shield
to catch the owl-eyed moon.
poem by Kathleen Griffin
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In Me
In me
A raging tiger sweeps the floor
Bloodshot eyes on the fragile door
To freedom, carnage & freedom again
To break the bonds, break the chain
Of greed & folly, folly and greed
Of those who were, are, and their creed
His claws are out, he can smell the blood
Of raised heads ground in the mud
But he waits and waiting in me
Claws my insides to be free
poem by Kishore Asthana
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I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings
The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.
But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.
The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and is tune is heard
on the distant hillfor the caged bird
sings of freedom
The free bird thinks of another breeze
an the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.
But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
poem by Maya Angelou
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