King Of The Sky

by Gary Jacobson copyright 1999

Oh hawk I see flying high
High above the world in the morning sky,
Tell me what you see
Below your grand reverie
As you fly above distant hills
Buoyant over rocks and rills.

Is it the foibles of mice and men
The world below you of vice and sin
that you lament with screeching cry?
Oh how I wish on lofty wings I could fly,
On feathered wings soar high and higher.
To fanciful dreams I aspire.

Odds and fates I would defy,
Like a hawk in the sky
Flying above this world's toil and strife
Above its rat race , find real life
For the world is yours, oh king of the sky,
As it in mundane spinning goes aimlessly by.

Man peremptorily believes himself the firmament ruling,
In arrogance thinking
The world around him revolves alone
Unmindful of grievous mistakes for which he must atone
As silently bove it all on drafts of air you float,
Bearing all the grace of which poet's wrote.

Lazily does the hawk go soaring,
Keen hawk eyes intensely all seeing
The world of men far below
Where petty enmities daily grow
Embroiled foolishly in fighting,
Quixotic jousting with windmills inciting.



The slightest movement does not escape your eye
Oh king of the sky,
Ruling from your royal court on high,
Watching mortal men living,
Loving,
Dying...
Assessing mortals below with lofty gaze
Passing judgement throughout your days.

On pillows of clouds you're laying,
Hovering,
Floating,
Hanging,
Catching wafting currents of air,
Totally without want or care.

You are forever true to hawkish ways,
Overseeing the world of man in his earthbound maze
A distant dot suspended observing
In azure sky inspecting
Do you see below you the folly of men,
With all the beasts that are kin to him?

Do you see mankind's future,
As on robin-egg skies you venture
Where we've been,
Where we're going and when,
Embroiled so with strife and sin,
As you soar high above this mortal din?

Your Rocky Mountain high brings sweet dreams
To escape mortal schemes,
Romantic thoughts of flying with you
Terra firma to eschew
Soaring up and away into your free-spirited world,
Suspended high in the surreal unfurled,

My human heart overflowing spills
With solemnity your hawkish spirit fills
Staring, gawking,
At the hawk flying high hypnotizing,
Mesmerizing,
In currents of the high winds dancing.

My soul fills with tranquil dignity,
Suddenly surreal piety.
Abruptly I find myself absolved of all petty enmity,
Easier to endure
Things that make my dreary life obscure
Captured forever in your allure.

If you stare long enough you become as one,
To brother hawk floating near the sun,
Soundlessly on currents of air run
Then screeching in the wind,
A haunting message to the primitive soul send,
With savage longing to tear and rend.

Oh how I wish I too could fly on high,
Like unto the king of the sky.
I would leave behind all earthly woe and care
Find the peace the hawk has up there.
I would be ruler of all my eye surveys,
Flitting mid heaven's glorious rays.

Far above this mortal foil I'd go
What rapturous joy to watch creatures far below
Their petty squabbles absurd,
Mindless of what on Terra Firma has occurred,
With the keen eye of the hawk an understanding ken,
Taking in what I will of mortal mice and men.