Falcon Heart

John Baker 1959 (South Dakota)



Falcon heart, with peregrine desire,
never satisfied
with what you circle,
you circle out until your circling
becomes notorious.

You lengthen out your radius
from what you could acquire
until the mountains are beneath you
and the oceans, wide and glorious.

‘Til Earth itself becomes your hare,
your wing beats will not tire,
as you grow tinier and tinier
compared to your desire.

About this poem

I wrote this poem after reading a poem called "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats. I liked the lines "turning and turning in a widening gyre, the falcon cannot hear the falconer," but I wanted to go in a different direction with it. My poem is ambiguous and may be read as heroic or pathetic.

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Written on January 01, 1991

Submitted by Poet_baker_2000 on February 19, 2023

Modified on March 14, 2023

21 sec read
0

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXXXB BAXB XAAA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 383
Words 71
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 4, 4

John Baker

The author has been writing poetry since 1980. He currently lives in New Hampshire where he teaches writing at a small college. more…

All John Baker poems | John Baker Books

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    "Falcon Heart" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 27 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/153163/falcon-heart>.

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