tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post7494091361422297232..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: WindhoverUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-80402716914343122682010-11-29T03:51:18.544-08:002010-11-29T03:51:18.544-08:00Oh, yes.
With this kind of power and beauty, spee...Oh, yes.<br /><br />With this kind of power and beauty, speech would be redundant, a tiresome afterthought... (spake he).TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-89399162156096681942010-11-29T03:01:15.122-08:002010-11-29T03:01:15.122-08:00The beauty in the power. The power of being free.
...The beauty in the power. The power of being free.<br />'speechless prayer' and there, is the beauty and freedom.SarahAhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14791948357280208382noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-12161939146071031822010-08-02T07:37:57.623-07:002010-08-02T07:37:57.623-07:00Curtis, Steve, Elmo and Lucy,
Good to be with you...Curtis, Steve, Elmo and Lucy,<br /><br />Good to be with you on the wind and in the clouds.<br /><br /><a href="http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/robinson-jeffers-rock-and-hawk.html" rel="nofollow">Majesty is never pedestrian</a>.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-54674053699224423912010-08-01T12:58:37.051-07:002010-08-01T12:58:37.051-07:00Majestic.Majestic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-76313112903890947752010-08-01T12:20:59.392-07:002010-08-01T12:20:59.392-07:00pedestrian:
"The falcon cannot hear the
fal...pedestrian:<br /><br />"The falcon cannot hear the<br /> falconer"<br /> Yeats<br /><br />days when you can read the birds<br />and the clouds<br /><br />or is it a delusion or a fiction<br />as in Carlos Castenada and the<br />crowsElmo St. Rosenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-4742230088451539852010-07-31T12:23:51.409-07:002010-07-31T12:23:51.409-07:00Tom,
Thanks for latest view of peregrine stoop, I...Tom,<br /><br />Thanks for latest view of peregrine stoop, I'll show Johnny when he gets back on Wednesday. And yes, that BBC announcer maybe DID think about a career change up there in that balloon (looking 10,000 feet down from platform he was on, a moment before the jump. . . .<br /><br /><br />7.31<br /><br />light coming into fog against invisible<br />ridge, blackness of pine branch in left<br />foreground, no sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> space for lines, the initial<br /> contrast between ground<br /><br /> to be, approaching beginning,<br /> what is toward thinking<br /><br />grey-white of fog reflected in channel,<br />wingspan of cormorant flapping over itSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-53643364871008920372010-07-30T09:51:51.047-07:002010-07-30T09:51:51.047-07:00So that's where Stuka comes from. If I ever k...So that's where Stuka comes from. If I ever knew, I'd forgotten. Along with "windhover", it's still the word of the week.Curtis Robertsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-39144783550927704262010-07-30T09:12:23.555-07:002010-07-30T09:12:23.555-07:00Thank you Curtis, Steve, Johnny, Don and womanimal...Thank you Curtis, Steve, Johnny, Don and womanimal. (And welcome womanimal!)<br /><br />Curtis, glad you liked<br /><br /> sturzkampfflugzeug<br /><br />The comparison with a dive bomber (acronym: Stuka) might seem hyperbolic, but in fact I believe a stooping Falcon may reach even higher speeds than did the diving Stuka. <br /><br />Steve and Johnny, I thought that BBC reporter might have been privately considering a change of professions, for a moment there, during the pre-dive play with the falcon's fluffytoy.<br /><br />The aerodynamics are astonishing. Here's an alternative view, sans human intervention: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2nn-q6ezuM&feature=related" rel="nofollow">A Peregrine Stoops</a>.<br /><br />Don, that fourth photo holds the key to the <br /><br />king-<br /> dom of daylight's dauphin<br /><br />in mid-air. <br /><br />I should say that the post began as a presentation of the great Hopkins poem, and to be fair I should put the text here.<br /><br />It's a very kinetic poem, and to give it its due, the intended effect (of course) is not to celebrate killing but to send the soul soaring toward God.<br /><br />What steered me away from posting the poem, in the end, was its implicit (symbolic) identification of the Falcon with God/Christ, which, when given a bit of thought, seemed/seems somewhat problematic.<br /><br />The Falcon is what it is and does what it does. It is not responsible for the universe, only for itself. <br />___<br /><br /><br />Gerard Manley Hopkins: The Windhover (writ 1877, published 1918)<br /><br />To Christ Our Lord<br /><br /> I caught this morning morning's minion, king-<br /> dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding<br /> Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding<br /> High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing<br /> In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,<br /> As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend the hurl and gliding<br /> Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding<br /> Stirred for a bird -- the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!<br /><br /> Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here<br /> Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion<br /> Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!<br /><br /> No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion<br /> Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,<br /> Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-70491675696078002782010-07-30T08:46:54.475-07:002010-07-30T08:46:54.475-07:00Stunning pictures, and your poem homage to Hopkins...Stunning pictures, and your poem homage to Hopkins inspires the same awe I feel when watching a bird. Just lovely. Thank you.womanimalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13572867122705640761noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-80847363202162665792010-07-30T07:01:14.777-07:002010-07-30T07:01:14.777-07:00Dear Tom,
Thank you for your note on the peregrin...Dear Tom,<br /><br />Thank you for your note on the peregrine falcon. My dad told me he once saw one over on the cliffs near Muir Beach. We once saw a program on Channel 9 about the world's fastest animals -- cheetah, barracuda (fastest ocean animal) and the peregrine falcons fastest of all. A man measures its speed in a dive by jumping out of a balloon at 10,000 (?) feet with something that the falcon liked to hunt, and once he was going as fast as possible they released the falcon, who went into its dive and soon caught up with the man. . . . You can see this on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v+InT2joxnkqY<br /><br />Johnny<br /><br />ps. here's something from my dad --<br /><br />7.30<br /><br />light coming into fog against invisible<br />top of ridge, blue jay calling in right<br />foreground, no sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> paintings being nevertheless<br /> physical stages, period<br /><br /> for example, “anything” flat,<br /> area of its limit forms<br /><br />grey-white of fog reflected in channel,<br />whiteness of gull gliding toward ridgeSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-59794765826423872182010-07-30T05:43:49.922-07:002010-07-30T05:43:49.922-07:00The 4th photo is absolutely unbelievable in its co...The 4th photo is absolutely unbelievable in its content and composition ... thanks.<br /><br />"dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon," indeed.<br /><br />Your close, so salient:<br /><br />"from bird augury and violence in the realm<br />of the parahuman<br />the gods have always been made."Issa's Untidy Huthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07352841590717991698noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-78880409127767004282010-07-29T12:31:10.727-07:002010-07-29T12:31:10.727-07:00Wow. These -- the poem Windhover, the images and t...Wow. These -- the poem Windhover, the images and the birds themselves -- are really and truly beyond the pale. And although it's only Thursday,"sturzkampfflugzeug" wins the Word of the Week prize.Curtis Robertsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-71371061934443038302010-07-29T07:53:33.970-07:002010-07-29T07:53:33.970-07:00Dear Johnny,
"The bird that is considered to...Dear Johnny,<br /><br />"The bird that is considered to be the fastest flier in the world is the Peregrine Falcon.<br /><br />"Bearing the scientific name Falco peregrinus, this bird is indeed the fastest living being alive, faster than even the cheetah. It reaches speeds of over 124 miles per hour when flying on an even plane. When it gets into a swooping steepling dive, it can reach speeds close to 170 miles per hour ( the official number given is 168 miles per hour)! The swooping dive is evident in exhibitions of individual territoriality or during a hunt for prey..."TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-33117103036799952642010-07-29T07:42:10.660-07:002010-07-29T07:42:10.660-07:00Tom,
Great photos (!) "my heart stirred"...Tom,<br /><br />Great photos (!) "my heart stirred" (Johnny's too, "is the Peregrine falcon the fastest bird?") and all I hear here is (again) song sparrow . . . .<br /><br /><br />7.29<br /><br />grey whiteness of fog against invisible<br />ridge, song sparrow calling from branch<br />in foreground, sound of wave in channel<br /><br /> presence of field, analogous<br /> to dimension of surface<br /><br /> equal to its mass, suspended<br /> system, inertia of that<br /><br />grey-white of fog reflected in channel,<br />wingspan of tern circling up across itSTEPHEN RATCLIFFEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12339481653546188412noreply@blogger.com